•HI 


-, 


S  "I 


LIBRARY    OF    CONTEMPORARY    EXPLORATION 
AND    ADVENTURE 


OUR 


ARCTIC    PROVINCE 


ALASKA  AND  THE  SEAL  ISLANDS 


HENRY   W.   ELLIOTT 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  KANT  DRAWINGS  FROM  NATURE 

IfAPS 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

1906 


CHARLES   SCRIBNEK'S  SONS 


fROW'S 
PRINTING  AND  BOOKBINDING  COMPANY. 


INTRODUCTION. 


IF  the  writer  could  materialize  in  the  reader's  mind  that  large 
aggregate  of  printed  matter  now  stacked  on  book-shelves  and  filed 
in  newspaper  columns,  which  has  been  published  to  the  world 
during  the  last  eighty  years  upon  Alaska,  the  effect  would  cer- 
tainly be  startling. 

Scores  of  weighty  volumes,  hundreds  of  pamphlets  and  mag- 
azine articles,  and  a  thousand  newspaper  letters,  have  been  devoted 
to  the  subject  of  Alaskan  life,  scenery,  and  value.  In  contempla- 
tion of  this,  viewed  from  the  author's  standpoint  of  extended  per- 
sonal experience,  he  announces  his  determination  to  divest  him- 
self of  all  individuality  in  the  following  chapters,  to  portray  in 
word,  and  by  brush  and  pencil,  the  life  and  country  of  Alaska  as  it 
is,  so  clearly  and  so  truthfully,  that  the  reader  may  draw  his  or  her 
own  inference,  just  as  though  he  or  she  stood  upon  the  ground 
itself. 

How  differently  a  number  of  us  are  impressed  in  the  viewing  of 
any  one  subject,  by  which  observation  we  utterly  fail  to  agree  as  to 
its  character  and  worth !  This  variance  is  handsomely  illustrated 
by  the  diverse  opinion  of  Alaskan  travellers. 

SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION, 
February  2G,  1886. 


258603 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I 

DISCOVERY,  OCCUPATION,  AND  TRANSFER pp.  1-12 

The  Legend  of  Bering's  Voyage. — The  Discovery  of  Russian  America,  or  Alaska, 
in  July,  1741. — The  Return  Voyage  and  Shipwreck  of  the  Discoverer. — 
The  Escape  of  the  Survivors. — They  Tell  of  the  Furs  and  Ivory  of  Alaska. 
— The  Rush  of  Russian  Traders. — Their  Hardy  Exploration  of  the  Aleutian 
Chain,  Kadiak,  and  the  Mainland,  1760-80,  inclusive. — Fierce  Competi- 
tion of  the  Promyshlineks  finally  Leads  to  the  Organization  and  Domina- 
tion of  the  Russian  American  Company  over  all  Alaska,  1799.  — Its  Remark- 
able Success  under  Baraiiov's  Administration,  1800-18,  inclusive. — Its 
Rapid  Decadence  after  Baranov's  Removal. — Causes  in  1862-64  which 
Led  to  the  Refusal  of  the  Russian  Government  to  Renew  the  Charter  of 
the  Russian  American  Company. — Steps  which  Led  to  the  Negotiations 
of  Seward  and  Final  Acquisition  of  Alaska  by  the  U.  S.  Government, 
1867. 

CHAPTEK  H. 

FEATURES  OP  THE  SITKAN  REGION pp.  13-35 

The  Vast  Area  of  Alaska. — Difficulty  of  Comparison,  and  Access  to  her  Shores 
save  in  the  Small  Area  of  the  Sitkan  Region. — Many  Americans  as  Officers 
of  the  Government,  Merchants,  Traders,  Miners,  etc.,  who  have  Visited 
Alaska  during  the  last  Eighteen  Years. — Full  Understanding  of  Alaskan 
Life  and  Resources  now  on  Record.  — Beautiful  and  Extraordinary  Features 
of  the  Sitkan  Archipelago. — The  Decaying  Town  of  Wrangel. — The 
Wonderful  Glaciers  of  this  Region. — The  Tides.  Currents,  and  Winds. — 
The  Forests  and  Vegetation  Omnipresent  in  this  Land-locked  Archipelago. 
—Indigenous  Berries. — Gloomy  Grandeur  of  the  Canons. — The  Sitkan 
Climate. — Neither  Cold  nor  Warm — Excessive  Humidity. — Stickeen  Gold 
Excitement  of  1862  and  1875. — The  Decay  of  Cassiar. — The  Picturesque 
Bay  of  Sitka.  — The  Romance  and  Terror  of  Baranov's  Establishment  there 
in  1800-1805.— The  Russian  Life  and  Industries  at  Sitka.— The  Contrast 
between  Russian  Sitka  and  American  Sitka  a  Striking  One. 


Vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE  m. 

ABORIGINAL  LIFE  OF  THE  SITKANS pp.  36-66 

The  White  Man  and  the  Indian  Trading. — The  Shrewdness  and  Avarice  of  the 
Savage. — Small  Value  of  the  entire  Land  Fur  Trade  of  Alaska.— The 
Futile  Effort  of  the  Greek  Catholic  Church  to  Influence  the  Sitkan  In- 
dians.— The  Reason  why  Missionary  Work  in  Alaska  has  been  and  is 

Impotent. The  Difference  between  the  Fish-eating  Indian  of  Alaska  and 

the  Meat-eating  Savage  of  the  Plains.— Simply  One  of  Physique. — The 
Haidahs  the  Best  Indians  of  Alaska.  —Deep  Chests  and  Bandy  Legs  from 
Canoe-travel. — Living  in  Fixed  Settlements  because  Obliged  To. — Large 
"Rancheries"  or  Houses  Built  by  the  Haidahs. — Communistic  Families. 
— Great  Gamblers. — Indian  "House-Raising  Bees." — Grotesque  Totem 
Posts. — Indian  Doctors  "Kill  or  Cure." — Dismal  Interior  of  an  Indian 
"  Rancherie." — The  Toilet  and  Dress  of  Alaskan  Si  washes. — The  Unwrit- 
ten Law  of  the  Indian  Village.— What  Constitutes  a  Chief.— The  Tribal 
Boundaries  and  their  Scrupulous  Regard.— Fish  the  Main  Support  of 
Sitkan  Indians. — The  Running  of  the  Salmon. — Indians  Eat  Everything. 
— Their  Salads  and  Sauces.— Their  Wooden  Dishes  and  Cups,  and  Spoons 
of  Horn.— The  Family  Chests. — The  Indian  Woman  a  Household  Drudge. 
— She  has  no  Washing  to  Do,  However. — Sitkan  Indians  not  Great 
Hunters. — They  are  Unrivalled  Canoe-builders. — Small-pox  and  Measles 
have  Reduced  the  Indians  of  the  Sitkan  Archipelago  to  a  Scanty  Number. 
— Abandoned  Settlements  of  these  Savages  Common. — The  Debauchery  of 
Rum  among  these  People. — The  White  Man  to  Blame  for  This. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  ALPINE  ZONE  OF  MOUNT  ST.  ELIAS pp.  07-81 

The  Hot  Spring  Oasis  and  the  Humming-bird  near  Sitka. — The  Value  and 
Pleasure  of  Warm  Springs  in  Alaska.  — The  Old  ' '  Redoubt  "  or  Russian 
Jail.— The  Tread  well  Mine. — Futility  of  Predicting  what  may,  or  what 
will  not  Happen  in  Mining  Discovery. — Coal  of  Alaska  not  fit  for  Steam- 
ing Purposes. — Salmon  Canneries. —The  Great  "Whaling  Ground''  of 
Fairweather. —Superb  and  Lofty  Peaks  seen  at  Sea  One  Hundred  and 
Thirty-five  Miles  Distant. — Mount  Fairweather  so  named  as  the  Whale- 
men's Barometer. — The  Storm  here  in  1741  which  Separated  Bering  and 
his  Lieutenant. — The  Grandeur  of  Mount  St.  Elias,  Nineteen  Thousand 
Five  Hundred  Feet. — A  Tempestuous  and  Forbidding  Coast  to  the  Mariner. 
—The  Brawling  Copper  River. — Mount  Wrangel,  Twenty  Thousand  Feet, 
the  Loftiest  Peak  on  the  North  American  Continent. — In  the  Forks  of 
this  Stream. — Exaggerated  Fables  of  the  Number  and  Ferocity  of  the 
Natives. — Frigid,  Gloomy  Grandeur  of  the  Scenery  in  Prince  William 
Sound. — The  First  Vessel  ever  built  by  White  Men  on  the  Northwest 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

Coast,  Constructed  here  in  1794. — The  Brig  Phoenix,  One  Hundred  and 
Eighty  Tons,  No  Paint  or  Tar  — Covered  with  a  Coat  of  Spruce-Gum, 
Ochre,  and  Whale-oil,  Wrecked  in  1799  with  Twenty  Priests  and  Dea- 
cons of  the  Greek  Church  on  Board. — Every  Soul  Lost. — Love  of  the 
Natives  for  their  Rugged,  Storm-beaten  Homes. 


CHAPTER  V. 

COOK'S  INLET  AND  ITS  PEOPLE pp.  82-97 

Cook's  "Great  River." — The  Tide-rips,  and  their  Power  in  Cook's  Inlet. — 
The  Impressive  Mountains  of  the  Inlet.  — The  Glaciers  of  Turnagain  Canal. 
— Old  Russian  Settlements. — Kenai  Shore  of  the  Inlet,  the  Garden-spot 
of  Alaska. — Its  Climate  best  Suited  to  Civilized  Settlement. — The  Old 
"Colonial  Citizens''  of  the  Russian  Company. — Small  Shaggy  Siberian 
Cattle. — Burning  Volcano  of  Ilyamna. — The  Kenaitze  Indians. — Their 
Primitive,  Simple  Lives. — They  are  the  Only  Native  Land-animal  Hunt- 
ers of  Alaska.— Bears  and  Bear  Roads.— Wild  Animals  seek  Shelter  in 
Volcanic  Districts.— Natives  Afraid  to  Follow  Them. — Kenaitze  Archi- 
tecture.— Sunshine  in  Cook's  Inlet. — Splendid  Salmon. — Waste  of  Fish 
as  Food  by  Natives. — The  Pious  Fishermen  of  Neelshik. — Russian  Gold- 
mining  Enterprise  on  the  Kaknoo,  1848-55. — Failure  of  our  Miners  to 
Discover  Paying  Mines  in  this  Section. 


CHAPTER    VL 

THE  GREAT  ISLAND  OP  KADIAK pp.  98-126 

Kadiak  the  Geographical  and  Commercial  Centre  of  Alaska. — Site  of  the  First 
Grand  Depot  of  the  Old  Russian  Company. — Shellikov  and  his  Remark- 
able History,  1784. — His  Subjection  of  the  Kaniags. — Bloody  Struggle.— 
He  Founds  the  First  Church  and  School  in  Alaska  at  Three  Saints  Bay, 
1786,  One  Hundred  Years  ago. — Kadiak,  a  Large  and  Rugged  Island. — The 
Timber  Line  drawn  upon  it. — Luxuriant  Growth  of  Annual  and  Biennial 
Flowering  Plants. — Reason  why  Kadiak  was  Abandoned  for  Sitka. — The 
Depot  of  the  Mysterious  San  Francisco  Ice  Company  on  Wood  Island.— Only 
Road  and  Horses  in  Alaska  there. — Creole  Ship  and  Boat  Yard. — Tough 
Siberian  Cattle. — Pretty  Greek  Chapel  at  Yealovuie. — Afognak,  the  Larg- 
est Village  of  "Old  Colonial  Citizens. "—Picturesque  and  Substantial  Vil- 
lage.— Largest  Crops  of  Potatoes  raised  here. — No  Ploughing  done  ;  Earth 
Prepared  with  Spades. — Domestic  Fowls. — Failure  of  Our  People  to  Raise 
Sheep  at  Kolma. — What  a  "Creole"  is. — The  Kaniags  or  Natives  of  Ka- 
diak; their  Salient  Characteristics.— Great  Diminution  of  their  Num- 
bers.— Neglect  of  Laws  of  Health  by  Natives. — Apathy  and  Indifference 
to  Death. — Consumption  and  Scrofula  the  Scourge  of  Natives  in  Alaska  ; 
Measles  equally  deadly. — Kaniags  are  Sea-otter  Hunters. — The  Penal 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

Station  of  Ookamok,  the  Botany  Bay  of  Alaska.— The  Wild  Coast  of  the 
Peninsula. — Water-terraces  on  the  Mountains. — Belcovsky,  the  Rich  and 
Profligate  Settlement. — Kvass  Orgies. — Oouga,  Cod-fishing  Rendezvous. 
—The  Burial  of  Shoomagin  here,  1741,— The  Coal  Mines  here  Worthless. 


CHAPTER  VH. 

THE  QUEST  OF  THE  OTTER pj*  127-144 

Searching  for  the  Otter. — Exposure  and  Danger  in  Hunting  Sea-otters. — The 
Fortitude,  Patience,  and  Skill  of  the  Captor. — Altasov  and  his  Band  of  Cruel 
Cossacks. — Feverish  Energy  of  the  Early  Russian  Sea-otter  Traders. — Their 
Shameful  Excesses. — Greed  for  Sea-otter  Skins  Leads  the  Russians  to  Ex- 
plore the  Entire  Alaskan  Coast,  1760-1780.— Great  Numbers  of  Sea-otters 
when  they  were  First  Discovered  in  Alaska. — Their  Partial  Extermina- 
tion in  1836-40. — More  Secured  during  the  Last  Five  Years  than  in  all 
the  Twenty  Years  Preceding. — What  is  an  Otter? — A  Description  of  its 
Strange  Life. — Its  Single  Skin  sometimes  Worth  $500. — The  Typical  Sea- 
otter  Hunter. — A  Description  of  Him  and  his  Family. — Hunting  the  Sea- 
Cotter  the  Sole  Remunerative  Industry  of  the  Aleutians. — Gloomy,  Storm- 
beaten  Haunts  of  the  Otter. — Saanak,  the  Grand  Rendezvous  of  the 
Hunters.— The  "Surround"  of  the  Otter.— "  Clubbing"  the  Otter.— 
"  Netting  "  the  Otter.— "  Surf  -shooting  "  Them. 


CHAPTER  VHI. 

THE  GREAT  ALEUTIAN  CHAIN pp.  145-187 

The  Aleutian  Islands. — A  Great  Volcanic  Chain. — Symmetrical  Beauty  of 
Shishaldin  Cone. — The  Banked  Fires  in  Oonimak.  — Once  most  Densely 
Populated  of  all  the  Aleutians  ;  now  Without  a  Single  Inhabitant. — 
Sharp  Contrast  in  the  Scenery  of  the  Aleutian  and  Sitkan  Archipelagoes. 
— Fog,  Fog,  Fog,  Everywhere  Veiling  and  Unveiling  the  Chain  Inces- 
santly.—Schools  of  Hump-back  Whales.  — The  Aleutian  Whalers.— Odd 
and  Reckless  Chase. — The  Whale-backed  Volcano  of  Akootan. — Striking 
Outlines  of  Kahlecta  Point  and  the  "  Bishop." — Lovely  Bay  of  Oonalashka. 
— No  Wolf  e'er  Howled  from  its  Shore. — Illoolook  Village. — The  "Curved 
Beach." — The  Landscape  a  Fascinating  Picture  to  the  Ship- weary  Trav- 
eller.— Flurries  of  Snow  in  August. — Winds  that  Riot  over  this  Aleutian 
Chain.— The  Massacre  of  Drooshinnin  and  One  Hundred  and  Fifty  of  his 
Siberian  Hunters  here  in  1762-63.— This  the  only  Desperate  and  Fatal 
Blow  ever  Struck  by  the  Docile  Aleutes.— The  Rugged  Crown  and  Noisy 
Crater  of  Makooshin.— The  Village  at  its  Feet.— The  Aleutian  People  the 
Best  Natives  of  Alaska. — All  Christians. — Quiet  and  Respectful. — Fash- 
ions and  Manners  among  them. — The  "Barrabkie." — Quaint  Exterior  and 
Interior. —These  Natives  Love  Music  and  Dancing. — Women  on  the 


CONTENTS.  ix 

Wood  and  Water  Trails.— Simple  Cuisine. —Their  Remarkable  Willing- 
ness to  be  Christians. — A  Greek  Church  or  Chapel  in  every  Settlement. 
— General  Intelligence. — Keeping  Accounts  with  the  Trader's  Store. — 
They  are  thus  Proved  to  be  Honest  at  Heart.— The  Festivals  or  "Praz- 
niks."— The  Phenomena  of  Borka  Village.— It  is  Clean. —Little  Ceme- 
teries.— Faded  Pictures  of  the  Saints. — Atto,  the  Extreme  Western  Set- 
tlement of  the  North  American  Continent. — Three  Thousand  Miles  West 
of  San  Francisco  !— The  Mummies  of  the  "  Cheetiery  Sopochnie." — The 
Birth  of  a  New  Island.— The  Rising  of  Boga  Slov. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

WONDERFUL,  SEAL.  ISLANDS pp.  188-253 

The  Fur-seal  Millions  of  the  Pribylov  Islands. — Marvellous  Exhibition  of 
Massed  Animal-life  in  a  State  of  Nature. — Story  of  the  Discovery  of 
these  Remarkable  Rookeries,  July,  1786. — Previous  Knowledge  of  them 
Unknown  to  Man. — Sketch  of  the  Pribylov  Islands. — Their  Character, 
Climate,  and  Human  Inhabitants. — A  Realm  of  Summer-fog. — The  Seal- 
life  here  Overshadows  Everything,  though  the  Bird  Rookeries  of  Saint 
George  are  Wonderful. — No  Harbors.— The  Roadsteads. — The  Attractive 
Flora. — Only  Islands  in  Alaska  where  the  Curse  of  Mosquitoes  is  Re- 
moved.— Natives  Gathering  Eggs  on  Walrus  Islet. — A  Scene  of  Confusion 
and  Uproar. — Contrast  very  Great  between  Saint  Paul  and  Saint  George. 
— Good  Reason  of  the  Seals  in  Resorting  to  these  Islands  to  the  Exclusion 
of  all  other  Land  in  Alaska.— Old-time  Manners  and  Methods  of  the  Rus- 
sians Contrasted  with  Our  Present  Control. — Vast  Gain  and  Improvement 
for  Seals  and  Natives. — The  Character  of  the  Present  Residents. — Their 
Attachment  to  the  Islands. — The  History  of  the  Alaska  Commercial  Com- 
pany.— The  Wise  Action  of  Congress. — The  Perfect  Supervision  of  the 
Agents  of  the  Government. — Seals  are  more  Numerous  now  than  at  First. 
— The  Methods  of  the  Company,  the  Government,  and  the  Natives  in 
Taking  the  Seals. 

CHAPTER  X. 

AMPHIBIAN  MILLIONS pp.  254-353 

Difference  between  a  Hair-seal  and  a  Fur-seal. — The  Fur-seal  the  most  Intelli- 
gent of  all  Amphibians. — Its  singularly  Free  Progression  on  Land. — Its 
Power  in  the  Water. — The  Old  Males  the  First  Arrivals  in  the  Spring. — 
Their  Desperate  Battles  one  with  Another  for  Position  on  the  Breeding 
Grounds. — Subsequent  Arrival  of  the  Females. — Followed  by  the  "  Bach- 
elors."— Wonderful  Strength  and  Desperate  Courage  of  the  Old  Males.— 
Indifference  of  the  Females. — Xoise  of  the  Rookeries  Sounds  like  the  Roar 
of  Niagara.— Old  Males  fast  from  May  to  August,  inclusive  ;  neither  Eat 


X  CONTENTS. 

nor  Drink,  nor  Leave  their  Stations  in  all  that  Time. — Graceful  Females. — 
Frolicsome  "  Pups." — They  have  to  Learn  to  Swim  ! — How  they  Learn.— 
Astonishing  Vitality  of  the  Fur-seal.  — "Podding"  of  the  Pups.— Beauti- 
ful Eyes  of  the  Fur-seal. — How  the  "  Holluschickie,"  or  Bachelor  Seals, 
Pass  the  Time. — They  are  the  only  ones  Killed  for  Fur. — They  Herd  alone 
by  Themselves  in  spite  of  their  Inclination;  Obliged  to. — They  are  the 
Champion  Swimmers  of  the  Sea. — A  Review  of  the  Vast  Breeding  Rook- 
eries.— Natives  Gathering  a  Drove. — Driving  the  Seals  to  the  Slaughter- 
ing Fields.— No  Chasing— no  Hunting  of  Seals.— The  Killing  Gang  at 
•Work:  Skinning,  Salting,  and  Shipping  the  Pelts.— All  Sent  Direct 
to  London. — Reasons  Why. — How  the  Skins  are  Prepared  for  Sacks, 
Muffs,  etc. 

CHAPTER  XL 

THE  ALASKAN  SEA-LION pp.  354-373 

A  Pelagic  Monarch. — Marked  Difference  between  the  Sea-lion  and  the  Fur- 
seal. — The  Imposing  Presence  and  Sonorous  Voice  of  the  "Sea-king." — 
Terrible  Combats  between  old  Sea-lion  Bulls. — Cowardly  in  the  Presence 
of  Man,  however. — Sea-lions  Sporting  in  the  Fury  of  Ocean  Surf.— It  has 
no  Fur  on  its  Huge  Hide. — Valuable  only  to  the  Natives,  who  Cover  their 
"Bidarrah"  with  its  Skin.— Its  Sweet  Flesh  and  Inodorous  Fat.— Not 
such  Extensive  Travellers  as  the  Fur-seals.  — The  Difficulty  of  Capturing 
Sea-lions. — How  the  Natives  Corral  them. — The  Sea-lion  "  Pen  ''  at  North- 
east Point. — The  Drive  of  Sea-lions. — Curious  Behavior  of  the  Animals. 
— Arrival  of  the  Drove  at  the  Village. — A  Thirteen -mile  Jaunt  with  the 
Clumsy  Drove.— Shooting  the  old  Males.— The  Bloody  "  Death- whirl."— 
The  Extensive  Economic  Use  made  of  the  Carcass  by  the  Natives. — 
Chinese  Opium  Pipes  Picked  with  Sea-lion  Mustache  bristles. 


CHAPTER  XH. 

INNUIT  LIFE  AND  LAND pp.  374-411 

"  Nooshagak  ;"  Wide  Application  of  an  Innuit  Name. — The  Post  and  River. — 
Countless  Pools,  Ponds,  and  Lakes  of  this  District  bordering  Bristol  Bay. 
— The  Eskimo  Inhabitants  of  the  Coast. — The  Features  and  Form  of 
Alaskan  Innuits. — Light-hearted,  Inconstant,  and  Independent. — Their 
Dress,  Manners,  and  Rude  Dwellings.— Their  Routine  of  Life. — Large  and 
Varied  Natural  Food-supplies. — Indifferent  Land  Hunters,  but  Mighty 
Fishermen. — Limited  Needs  from  Traders'  Stores. — Skilful  Carvers  in 
Ivory.— Their  Town  Hall,  or  "  Kashga. "— They  Build  and  Support  no 
Churches  here. — Not  of  a  real  Religious  Cast,  as  the  Aleutians  are.— The 
Dogs  and  Sleds  ;  Importance  of  Them  here.  — Great  Interest  of  the  Innuit  in 
Savage  Ceremonies.— The  Wild  Alaskan  Interior. — Its  Repellent  Features 
alike  Avoided  by  Savage  and  Civilized  Man.  —The  Indescribable  Misery 


CONTENTS.  XI 

of  Mosquitoes. — The  Desolation  of  Winter  in  this  Region. — The  Reindeer 
Slaughter-pen  on  the  Kvichak  River. — Amazing  Improvidence  of  the 
Innuit.  —The  Tragic  Death  of  Father  Juvenals,  on  the  Banks  of  the  Great 
Ilyamna  Lake,  1796. — The  Queer  Innuits  of  Togiak. — Immense  Muskrat 
Catch.— The  Togiaks  are  the  Quakers  of  Alaska. — The  Kuskokvim  Mouth 
a  Vast  Salmon-trap. — The  Ichthyophagi  of  Alaska. — Dense  Population. — 
Daily  Life  of  the  Fish-eaters. — Infernal  Mosquitoes  of  Kuskokvim  ;  the 
Worst  in  Alaska. — Kolmakovsky  ;  its  History. 


CHAPTER 

LONELY  NORTHERN  WASTES pp.  412-435 

The  Mississippi  of  Alaska  :  the  Yukon  River,  and  its  Thorough  Exploration. — 
Its  vast  Deltoid  Mouth. — Cannot  be  Entered  by  Sea-going  Vessels.— Its 
Valley,  and  its  Tributaries. — Dividing  Line  between  the  Eskimo  and  the 
Indian  on  its  Banks. — The  Trader's  Steamer  ;  its  Whistle  in  this  Lone 
Waste  of  the  Yukon.— Michaelovsky,  the  Trading  Centre  for  this  Exten- 
sive Circumpolar  Area. — The  Characteristic  Beauties  of  an  Arctic  Land- 
scape in  Summer. — Thunder-storms  on  the  Upper  Yukon  ;  never  Experi- 
enced on  the  Coast  and  at  its  Mouth. — Gorgeous  Arches  of  Auroral  Light; 
Beautiful  Spectacular  Fires  in  the  Heavens. — Unhappy  Climate. — Saint 
Michael's  to  the  Northward. — Zagoskin,  the  Intrepid  Young  Russian  Ex- 
plorer, 1842. — Snow  Blizzards. — Golovin  Bay;  our  People  Prospecting 
there  for  Lead  and  Silver. — Drift-wood  from  the  Yukon  Strews  the 
Beaches  of  Bering  Sea. — Ookivok,  and  its  Cliff-cave  Houses.— Hardy 
Walrus-hunters.  — Grantley  Harbor ;  a  Reminder  of  a  Costly  American 
Enterprise  and  its  Failure. — Cape  Prince  of  Wales — facing  Asia,  thirty-six 
miles  away. — Simeon  Deschnev,  the  first  White  Man  to  see  Alaska,  1648. 
His  Bold  Journey. — The  Diomede  Islands  ;  Stepping-stones  between  Asia 
and  America  in  Bering  Straits.— Kotzebue  Sound;  the  Rendezvous  for 
Arctic  Traders ;  the  Last  Northern  Station  Visited  by  Salmon.— Interest- 
ing Features  of  the  Place. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MORSE  AND  MAHLEMOOT pp.  436-465 

The  Monotonous  Desolation  of  the  Alaskan  Arctic  Coast. — Dreary  Expanse  of 
Low  Moorlands. — Diversified  by  Saddle-backed  Hills  of  Gray  and  Bronze 
Tints. — The  Coal  of  Cape  Beaufort  in  the  Arctic. — A  Narrow  Vein. — 
Pure  Carboniferous  Formation. — Doubtful  if  these  Alaskan  "  Black  Dia- 
monds" can  be  Successfully  Used. — Icy  Cape,  a  Sand-  and  Gravel-spit. — 
Remarkable  Land-locked  Lagoons  on  the  Beach. — The  Arctic  Innuits. — 
Point  Barrow,  Our  Extreme  Northern  Land,  a  Low  Gravel-spit. — The  But- 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

tercup  and  the  Dandelion  Bloom  here,  however,  as  at  Home. — Back  to 
Bering  Sea. — The  Interesting  Island  and  Natives  of  St.  Lawrence. — The 
Sea-horse. — Its  Uncouth  Form  and  Clumsy  Life. — Its  Huge  Bulk  and  Impo- 
tency  on  Land. — Lives  entirely  by  Clam-digging. — Rank  Flavor  of  its  Flesh. 
— The  Walrus  is  to  the  Innuit  just  as  the  Cocoa-palm  is  to  the  South  Sea 
Islander. — Hunting  the  Morse. — The  Jagged,  Straggling  Island  of  St. 
Matthew. — The  Polar  Bears' Carnival.— Hundreds  of  them  here. — Their 
Fear  of  Man. — "Over  the  Hills  and  Far  Away,"  whenever  Approached.— 
Completion  of  the  Alaskan  Circuit. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FULL-PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

SITKA  SOUND, Frontispiece. 

SEA-COW, Facing  page      4 

GRAND  GLACIER,  ICY  BAY, "  19 

KOOTZNAHOO  INLET, "  23 

GLIMPSE  OF  SITKA, "  32 

STICKEEN  SQUAW  BOILING  BERRIES  AND  OIL,       .  "  58 

MOUNT  ST.  ELIAS,  19,500  FEET, *«  73 

MOUNT  WRANGEL,  20,000  FEET, ,           "  77 

VALDES  GLACIER,  PRINCE  WILLIAM'S  SOUND,       .        .  "78 

MOUNT  ILYAMNA,  12,060  FEET, *«  87 

KENAITZE  SALMON  TRAP,  COOK'S  INLET,        ...  "  95 

CREOLES  AND  ALEUTES,  PENCIL  PORTRAITS,         .  "  108 

BELCOVSKY,  VILLAGE  OF, "  120 

SEA -OTTER  SURROUND, 140 

CLUBBING  SEA-OTTERS,    .......  "  143 

A  GLIMPSE  OF  SHISHALDIN, "  146 

ALEUTES  WHALING, "  152 

VILLAGE  OF  OONALASHKA, "  156 

VOLCANO  OF  MAKOOSHIN,  5,475  FEET,    ....  "  160 

OONALASHKAN  NATIVES  CODFISHING,     ....  "  168 

VILLAGE  AND  HARBOR  OF  ATTOO,          ....  "  179 

NORTH  SHORE  OF  ST.  GEORGE  ISLAND,         ...  "  200 

NETTING  CHOOCHKIES, "  209 

APPROACH  TO  ST.  GEORGE  ISLAND,       ....  *  227 

HAIR-SEALS,  GROUP  OF, "  255 

FUR-SEALS, "  258 

"OLD  JOHN,"  PORTRAIT  OF  AN  AGED  FUR-SEAL,         .  "  262 

OLD  FUR-SEAL  BULLS  FIGHTING "  266 

SUNDRY  SEAL  SKETCHES,  FROM  AUTHOR'S  PORTFOLIO,  "  277 


X1T  LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

ARRIVAL  OP  THE  FUR-SEAL  MILLIONS,  ....  Facing  page  296 

NATIVES  GATHERING  A  DRIVE, "  333 

NATIVES  DRIVING  FUR-SEALS, "  336 

KILLING  GANG  AT  WORK, u  339 

GROUP  OP  SEA-LIONS, "  354 

SEA-LION  ROOKERY  AT  TOLSTOI, "  358 

NATIVES  CREEPING  UPON  SEA-LIONS,  ....  "  364 

THE  SEA-LION  PEN  AT  NOVASTOSHNAH,  ...  "  365 

SPRINGING  THE  ALARM, 366 

NOOSHAGAK, "  374 

PORTRAIT  OP  "CHAMI,"  AND  THE  FAVORITE  POSITION 

OP  INNUITS, "  378 

PORTRAITS  OP  A  JESTING  INNUIT  MOTHER  AND  THE 

SON  OP  AHGAAN, "  395 

THE  SADDLE-BACKED  HAIR-SEAL,  Hwtriophaca,  .  .  400 

THE  KUSKOKVIM  RIVER  BELOW  KOLMAKOVSKY,  .  .  "  403 

KOLMAKOVSKY, 406 

TOMB  OP  INNUITS, .  .  410 

CAPE  PRINCE  OP  WALES, "  429 

POONOOK  WINTER  VILLAGE, "  443 

GROUP  OP  WALRUS, "  447 

PINNACLE  ISLET,  NEAR  ST.  MATTHEW  ISLAND,  .  "  461 


ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  TEXT. 

PAGE 

VIGNETTE:  HAIDAHS  HUNTING  HAIR-SEALS,         ....         Title 

LODGES  IN  A  VAST  WILDERNESS, 16 

BARANOV'S  CASTLE  (1817-26), 30 

SITKAN  CHIMES, -39 

OLD  INDIAN  CHAPEL,  SITKA, 41 

HAIDAH  RANCHERIE, 46 

SECTION  SHOWING  INTERIOR, .        .48 

RAKING  OOLOCHANS,  STICKEEN  RIVER, 57 

KENAITZE  CHIEF, 88 

BEAR  ROADS,  OONIMAK  ISLAND, 90 

KENAITZE  RANCHERIE,  COOK'S  INLET, 92 

OOGASHIK,  VILLAGE  OP, 119 

SEA-OTTER, 131 

BARRABKIE,  OR  ALEUTIAN  HUT, 135 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  XV 

PAOH 

ALEUTIAN  MUMMY, 185 

ALEUTES  CATCHING  HALIBUT, 212 

BOBROVIA,  OR  OTTER  ISLAND, 219 

FUR-SEALS  SCRATCHING, 271 

FUR-SEALS  RISING  TO  BREATHE  AND  SURVEY, 300 

PORTRAIT  OP  A  PRIBYLOV  SEALER,       .        .        .        .        .        .        .  338 

A  SKINNED  CARCASS,  AND  SKIN  THEREFROM, 342 

INTERIOR  OF  A  FUR-SEAL  SALT-HOUSE, 345 

NATIVES  DRIVING  SEA-LIONS, 368 

SEA-LION  BIDARRAH, 371 

INNUIT  WOMAN, 377 

INNUIT  HOME  ON  THE  KUSKOKVIM, 379 

THE  BIG  MAHKLOK,  OR  Erignathus, 383 

THE  INNUIT  KASHGA, 385 

SECTION  OF  THE  KASHGA, 386 

INNUIT  DOG,  "TATLAH," .        .        .        .388 

"BRULE,"  OR  BURNT  DISTRICTS, 409 

STEAMER  ON  THE  YUKON, 414 

MlCHAELOVSKY, 419 

OOKIVOK,  OR  KING'S  ISLAND, 426 

THE  DIOMEDES, 430 

IXNUIT  WHALING  CAMP, 439 

RINGED  SEAL,  Phoca  fcetida, 441 

WALRUS-HUNTER, 444 

SECTION  OF  INNUIT  WINTER  HOUSE  AT  POONOOK,       ....  446 

NEWACK'S  BROTHER, 455 

XEWACK  AND  OOGACK,  PEN  PORTRAITS  OF, 457 

NATIVES  GIVING  THE  WALRUS  A  DEATH-STROKE,        ....  459 
"DOUBLE  PURCHASE"  OF  THE  INNUITS, 461 


MAPS. 

SPECIAL  MAP  OF  ST.  PAUL  ISLAND,       ....  Facing  page  215 

SPECIAL  MAP  OF  ST.  GEORGE  ISLAND,          ...  «•          226 

SPECIAL  MAP  OF  NOVASTOSHNAH  ROOKERY,         .  "          314 

SPECIAL  MAP  OF  LAGOON  ROOKERY,     ....  "          315 

GENERAL  MAP  OF  ALASKA, At  end  of  Volume. 


OUR  ARCTIC  PROVINCE. 


CHAPTEK  I. 

DISCOVERY,  OCCUPATION,  AND  TRANSFER. 

The  Legend  of  Bering's  Voyage. — The  Discovery  of  Russian  America,  or  Alaska, 
in  July,  1741. — The  Return  Voyage  and  Shipwreck  of  the  Discoverer. — 
The  Escape  of  the  Survivors. — They  Tell  of  the  Furs  and  Ivory  of  Alaska. 
— The  Rush  of  Russian  Traders. — Their  Hardy  Exploration  of  the  Aleutian 
Chain,  Kadiak,  and  the  Mainland,  1760-80,  inclusive. — Fierce  Competi- 
tion of  the  Promyshlineks  finally  Leads  to  the  Organization  and  Domina- 
tion of  the  Russian  American  Company  over  all  Alaska,  1799.  —Its  Remark- 
able Success  under  Barauov's  Administration,  1800-18,  inclusive. — Its 
Rapid  Decadence  after  Baranov's  Removal. — Causes  in  1862-64  which 
Led  to  the  Refusal  of  the  Russian  Government  to  Renew  the  Charter  of 
the  Russian  American  Company. — Steps  which  Led  to  the  Negotiations  of 
Seward  and  Final  Acquisition  of  Alaska  by  the  U.  S.  Government,  1867. 

THE  stolid,  calm  intrepidity  of  the  Russian  is  not  even  yet  well 
understood  or  recognized  by  Americans.  No  better  presentation 
of  this  character  of  those  Slavic  discoverers  of  Alaska  can  be  made 
than  is  the  one  descriptive  of  Veit  Bering's  voyage  of  Russian- 
American  fame,  in  which  shipwreck  and  death  robbed  him  of  the 
glory  of  his  expedition.  No  legend  of  the  sea,  however  fanciful  or 
horrid,  surpasses  the  simple  truth  of  the  terror  and  privation  which 
went  hand-in-hand  with  Bering  and  his  crew. 

Flushed  with  the  outspoken  favor  of  his  sovereign,  Bering  and 
his  lieutenant,  Tschericov,  sailed  east  from  Petropaulovsky,  Kam- 
chatka, June  4,  1741  ;  the  expedition  consisted  of  two  small  sail- 
vessels,  the  St.  Peter  and  the  St.  Paul.  They  set  their  course 
S.  S.  E.,  as  low  as  the  50th  degree  of  north  latitude,  then  they 
decided  to  steer  directly  east  for  the  reported  American  continent. 
A  few  days  later  a  violent  storm  arose,  it  separated  the  rude  ships, 
and  the  two  commanders  never  met  in  life  again. 


PROVINCE. 

Whilf  groping  .in*  Jog:  qftd^  tempest  on  the  high  seas,  Bering 
drifte'd  one  Sunday  (July'l^th)  upon  or  about  the  Alaskan  mainland 
coast ;  he  disembarked  at  the  foot  of  some  low,  desolate  bluffs  that 
face  the  sea  near  the  spot  now  known  to  us  as  Kayak  Island,  and  in 
plain  view  of  those  towering  peaks  of  the  St.  Elias  Alps.  He  passed 
full  six  weeks  in  this  neighborhood,  while  the  crew  were  busy 
getting  fresh  food-supplies,  water,  etc.,  when,  on  the  3d  of  Septem- 
ber, a  storm  of  unwonted  vigor  burst  upon  them,  lasted  seven  days, 
and  drove  them  out  to  sea  and  before  it,  down  as  far  as  48°  8' 
north  latitude,  and  into  the  lonely  wastes  of  the  vast  Pacific. 
Scurvy  began  to  appear  on  board  the  St.  Peter;  hardly  a  day 
passed  without  recording  the  death  of  some  one  of  the  ship's  com- 
pany, and  soon  men  enough  in  health  or  strength  sufficient  to  work 
the  vessel  could  not  be  mustered.  A  return  to  Kamchatka  was 
resolved  upon. 

Bering  became  surly  and  morose,  and  seldom  appeared  on 
deck,  and  so  the  second  in  command,  "  Stoorman"  Vachtel,  directed 
the  dreary  cruise.  After  regaining  the  land,  and  burying  a  sailor 
named  Shoomagin  on  one  of  a  group  of  Alaskan  islets  that  bear  his 
name  to-day,  and  making  several  additional  capes  and  landfalls, 
they  saw  two  islands  which,  by  a  most  unfortunate  blunder,  they 
took  to  be  of  the  Kurile  chain,  and  adjacent  to  Kamchatka.  Thus 
they  erred  sadly  in  their  reckoning,  and  sailed  out  upon  a  false 
point  of  departure. 

In  vain  they  craned  their  necks  for  the  land,  and  strained  their 
feeble  eyes ;  the  shore  of  Kamchatka  refused  to  rise,  and  it  finally 
dawned  upon  them  that  they  were  lost — that  there  was  no  hope  of 
making  a  port  in  that  goal  so  late  in  the  year.  The  wonderful 
discipline  of  the  Russian  sailors  was  strikingly  exhibited  at  this 
stage  of  the  luckless  voyage  :  in  spite  of  their  debilitated  and 
emaciated  condition,  they  still  obeyed  orders,  though  suffering 
frightfully  in  the  cold  and  wet ;  the  ravages  of  scurvy  had  made 
such  progress  that  the  steersman  was  conducted  to  the  helm  by 
two  other  invalids  who  happened  to  have  the  use  of  their  legs,  and 
who  supported  him  under  the  arms  !  When  he  could  no  longer 
steer  from  suffering,  then  he  was  succeeded  by  another  no  better 
able  to  execute  the  labor  than  himself.  Thus  did  the  unhappy 
crew  waste  away  into  death  and  impotency.  They  were  obliged  to 
carry  few  sails,  for  they  were  helpless  to  reef  or  hoist  them,  and 
such  as  they  had  were  nearly  worn  out ;  and  even  in  this  case  they 


OCCUPATION,  AND  TRANSFER.       3 

were  unable  to  renew  them  by  replacing  from  the  stores,  since 
there  were  no  seamen  strong  enough  on  the  ship  to  bend  new  ones 
to  the  yards  and  booms. 

Soon  rain  was  followed  by  snow,  the  nights  grew  longer  and 
darker,  and  they  now  lived  in  dreadful  anticipation  of  shipwreck  ; 
the  fresh  water  diminished,  and  the  labor  of  working  the  vessel 
became  too  severe  for  the  few  who  were  able  to  be  about.  From 
the  1st  to  the  4th  of  November  the  ship  had  lain  as  a  log  on  the 
ocean,  helpless  and  drifting,  at  the  sport  of  the  wind  and  the  waves. 
Then  again,  in  desperation,  they  managed  to  control  her,  and  set 
her  course  anew  to  the  westward,  without  knowing  absolutely  any- 
thing as  to  where  they  were.  In  a  few  hours  after,  the  joy  of  the 
distressed  crew  can  be  better  imagined  than  described,  for,  looming 
up  on  the  gray,  gloomy  horizon,  they  saw  the  snow-covered  tops 
of  high  hills,  still  distant  however,  ahead.  As  they  drew  nearer, 
night  came  upon  them,  and  they  judged  best,  therefore,  to  keep 
out  at  sea  "  off  and  on  "  until  daybreak,  so  as  to  avoid  the  risk  of 
wrecking  themselves  in  the  deep  darkness.  When  the  gray  light  of 
early  morning  dawned,  they  found  that  the  rigging  on  the  star- 
board side  of  the  vessel  was  giving  way,  and  that  their  craft  could 
not  be  much  longer  managed  ;  that  the  fresh  water  was  very  low, 
and  that  sickness  was  increasing  frightfully.  The  raw  humidity  of 
the  climate  was  now  succeeded  by  dry,  intense  cold  ;  life  was  well- 
nigh  insupportable  on  shipboard  then,  so,  after  a  brief  consulta- 
tion, they  determined  to  make  for  the  land,  save  their  lives,  and,  if 
possible,  safely  beach  the  St.  Peter. 

The  small  sails  were  alone  set ;  the  wind  was  north  ;  thirty-six 
fathoms  of  \tater  over  a  sand  bottom ;  two  hours  after  they  de- 
creased it  to  twelve  ;  they  now  contrived  to  get  over  an  anchor  and 
run  it  out  at  three-quarters  of  a  cable's  length  ;  at  six  in  the  even- 
ing this  hawser  parted  ;  tremendous  waves  bore  the  helpless  boat 
on  in  toward  the  land  through  the  darkness  and  the  storm,  where 
soon  she  struck  twice  upon  a  rocky  reef.  Yet,  in  a  moment  after, 
they  had  five  fathoms  of  water ;  a  second  anchor  was  thrown  out, 
and  again  the  tackle  parted  ;  and  while,  in  the  energy  of  wild  de- 
spair, prostrated  by  sheets  of  salty  spray  that  swept  over  them  in 
bursts  of  fury,  they  were  preparing  a  third  bower,  a  huge  comb- 
ing wave  lifted  that  ark  of  misery — that  band  of  superlative  human 
suffering — safely  and  sheer  over  the  reef,  where  in  an  instant  the 
tempest-tossed  ship  rested  in  calm  water ;  the  last  anchor  was 


4  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

dropped,  and  thus  this  luckless  voyage  of  Alaskan  discovery  came 
to  an  end. 

Bering  died  here,  on  one  of  the  Commander  Islands,*  where  he 
had  been  wrecked  as  above  related  ;  the  survivors,  forty-five  souls 
in  number,  lived  through  the  winter  on  the  flesh  of  sea-lions,  the 
sea-cow,f  or  manatee,  and  thus  saved  their  scanty  stock  of  flour  ; 
they  managed  to  build  a  little  shallop  out  of  the  remains  of  the 
St.  Peter,  in  which  they  left  Bering  Island — departed  from  this 
scene  of  a  most  extraordinary  shipwreck  and  deliverance — on 
August  16,  1742,  and  soon  reached  Petropaulovsky  in  safety  the 
27th  following.  In  addition  to  an  authentic  knowledge  of  the 
location  of  a  great  land  to  the  eastward,  the  survivors  carried  from 
their  camp  at  Bering  Island  a  large  number  of  valuable  sea-otter, 
blue-fox,  and  other  peltries,  which  stimulated,  as  no  other  induce- 
ment could  have  done,  the  prompt  fitting  out  and  venture  of  many 
new  expeditions  for  the  freshly  discovered  land  and  islands  of 
Alaska. 

So,  in  1745,  Michael  Novidiskov  first,  of  all  white  men,  pushed 
over  in  a  rude  open  wooden  shallop  from  Kamchatka,  and  landed 
on  Attoo,  that  extreme  western  islet  of  the  great  Aleutain  chain 
which  forms  upon  the  map  a  remarkable  southern  wall  to  the 
green  waters  of  Bering  Sea.  No  object  of  geographical  search  was 
in  this  hardy  fur-hunter's  mind  as  he  perilled  his  life  in  that 
adventure — far  from  it ;  he  was  after  the  precious  pelage  of  the 


*  Bering's  Island — he  was  wrecked  on  the  east  coast,  at  a  point  under  steep 
bluffs  now  known  as  "  Kommandor."  Scarcely  a  vestige  of  this  shipwreck 
now  remains  there. 

f  That  curious  creature  is  extinct.  It  formerly  inhabited  the  sea-shores 
of  these  two  small  islands.  The  German  naturalist  Steller,  who  was  the  sur- 
geon of  Bering's  ship,  has  given  us  the  only  account  we  have  of  this  animal's 
appearance  and  habits;  it  was  the  largest  of  all  the  Sirenians  ^attained  a  length 
sometimes  of  thirty  feet.  When  first  discovered  it  was  extremely  abundant, 
and  formed  the  main  source  of  food-supply  for  the  shipwrecked  crew  of  Be- 
ring's vessel.  Twenty-seven  years  afterward  it  became  extinct,  due  to  the 
merciless  hunting  and  slaughter  of  it  by  the  Russians,  who,  on  their  way  over 
to  Alaska  from  Kamchatka,  always  made  it  an  object  to  stop  at  Bering  or  Cop- 
per Island  and  fill  up  large  casks  with  the  flesh  of  this  sea-cow.  Its  large  size, 
inactive  habits,  and  clumsy  progress  in  the  water,  together  with  its  utter  fear- 
lessness of  man,  made  its  extinction  rapid  and  feasible. 

I  make  the  restoration  from  a  careful  study  of  the  details  of  Steller's 
description. 


if 

&  I 


CC  O 

o  - 

<  1 

Z  'J 


DISCOVERY,    OCCUPATION,    AND   TRANSFER.  O 

sea-otter,  and  like  unto  him  were  all  of  the  long  list  of  Russian  ex- 
plorers of  Alaskan  coasts  and  waters.  These  rough,  indomitable 
men  ventured  out  from  their  headquarters  at  Kamchatka  aud  the 
Okotsk  Sea  in  rapid  succession  as  years  rolled  on,  until  by  the  end 
of  1768-69  a  large  area  of  Russian  America  was  well  determined 
and  rudely  charted  by  them.* 

The  history  of  this  early  exploration  of  Russian  America  is  the 
stereotyped  story  of  wrongs  inflicted  upon  simple  natives  by  ruth- 
less, fearless  adventurers — year  in  and  year  out — the  eager,  persist- 
ent examination  of  the  then  unknown  shores  and  interior  of  Alaska 
by  tireless  Cossacks  and  Muscovites,  who  were  busy  in  robbing  the 
aborigines  and  quarrelling  among  themselves.  The  success  of  the 
earliest  fur-hunters  had  been  so  great,  and  heralded  so  loudly  in 
the  Russian  possessions,  that  soon  every  Siberian  merchant  who 
had  a  few  thousand  rubles  at  his  order  managed  to  associate  him- 
self with  some  others,  so  that  they  might  together  fit  out  a  slovenly 
craft  or  two  and  engage  in  the  same  remunerative  business.  The 
records  show  that,  prior  to  the  autocratic  control  of  the  old  Russian 
American  Company  over  all  Alaska  in  1799,  more  than  sixty  dis- 
tinct Russian  trading  companies  were  organized  and  plying  their 
vocation  in  these  waters  and  landings  of  Alaska. 

They  all  carried  on  their  operations  in  essentially  the  same  man- 
ner :  the  owner  or  owners  of  the  shallop,  or  sloop,  or  schooner,  as 
it  might  be,  engaged  a  crew  on  shares ;  the  cargo  of  furs  brought 
back  by  this  vessel  was  invariably  divided  into  two  equal  subdivis- 
ions— one  of  these  always  claimed  by  the  owners  who  had  fur- 
nished the  means,  and  the  other  half  divided  in  such  a  manner  as 
the  navigator,  the  trader,  and  the  crew  could  agree  upon  between 
themselves.  Then,  after  this  division  had  been  made,  each  partici- 
pant was  to  give  one-tenth  part  of  his  portion,  as  received  above,  to 
the  Government  at  St.  Petersburg,  which,  stimulated  by  such  gen- 
erous swelling  of  its  treasury,  never  failed  to  keep  an  affectionate 
eye  upon  its  subjects  over  here,  and  encouraged  them  to  the  ut- 
most limit  of  exertion. 

*  The  order  of  this  search  and  voyaging  has  been  faithfully  recorded 
by  Ivan  Petroff  in  his  admirable  compendium  of  the  subject.  (See  Tenth 
Census  U.  S.  A.,  Vol.  VIII.)  While  this  narrative  may  be  interesting  to  a 
historian,  yet  I  deem  it  best  not  to  inflict  it  upon  the  general  reader. 
Also  in  "  Bancroft's  History  of  Alaska,"  recently  published  at  San  Francisco, 
it  is  graphically  and  laboriously  described. 


6  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

This  Imperial  impetus  undoubtedly  was  the  spur  which  caused 
most  of  that  cruel  domination  of  the  Russians  over  a  simple  people 
whom  they  found  at  first  in  possession  of  their  new  fur- bearing 
land  ;  the  thrifty  traders  managed  to  do  their  business  with  an  ex- 
ceedingly small  stock  of  goods,  and,  where  no  opposition  was  offered, 
these  unscrupulous  commercial  travellers  ordered  the  natives  out 
to  hunt  and  turn  over  all  their  booty,  not  even  condescending  to 
pay  them,  except  a  few  beads  or  strips  of  tobacco,  "  in  return  for 
their  good  behavior  and  submission  to  the  crown  ! "  Naturally 
enough,  the  treacherous  Koloshes  of  Sitka,  the  dogged  Kadiakers, 
the  vivacious  Eskimo  or  Innuits,  and  even  the  docile  Aleutes, 
would  every  now  and  then  arise  and  slaughter  in  their  rage  and 
despair  a  whole  trading  post  or  ship's  crew  of  Russians  ;  but  these 
outbreaks  were  not  of  preconcerted  plan  or  strength,  and  never 
seriously  interrupted  the  iron  rule  of  Slavonian  oppression. 

The  rapidly  increasing  number  of  competitors  in  the  fur  trade, 
however,  soon  began  to  create  a  scarcity  of  the  raw  material,  and 
then  the  jealousies  and  rivalries  of  the  trading  companies  began  in 
turn  to  vent  themselves  in  armed  struggles  against  each  other  for 
possession  and  gain.  This  order  of  affairs  quickly  threw  the  whole 
region  into  a  reign  of  anarchy  which  threatened  to  destroy  the  very 
existence  of  the  Russians  themselves.  Facing  this  deplorable  con- 
dition, one  of  the  leading  promoters  of  the  fur-trading  industry  in 
Alaska  saw  that,  unless  a  bold  man  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
conduct  of  his  business,  it  would  soon  be  ruined.  This  man  he 
picked  out  at  Kargopol,  Siberia,  and  on  August  18,  1790,  he  con- 
cluded a  contract  with  Alexander  Baranov,  who  sailed  that  day 
from  the  Okotsk,  and  who  finally  established  that  enduring  basis 
of  trade  and  Russian  domination  in  Alaska  which  held  till  our  pur- 
chase in  1867  of  all  its  vested  rights  and  title. 

The  wild  savage  life  which  the  Russians  led  in  these  early  days 
of  their  possession  of  this  new  land — their  bitter  personal  antago- 
nisms and  their  brutal  orgies — actuaUy  beggar  description,  and 
seem  well-nigh  incredible  to  the  trader  or  traveller  who  sojourns  in 
Alaska  to-day.  It  is  commonly  regarded  as  a  rude  order  of  exist- 
ence up  there  among  ourselves  now ;  and  when  we  come  to  think 
back,  and  contrast  the  stormy  past  with  the  calm  present,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  comprehend  it ;  yet  it  is  not  so  strange  if  it  be  remem- 
bered that  they  were  practically  beyond  all  reach  of  authority,  and 
lived  for  many  consecutive  years  in  absolute  non-restraint. 


DISCOVERY,    OCCUPATION,    AND   TRANSFER.  7 

It  is  easy  to  trace  the  several  steps  and  understand  the  motives 
which  led  to  our  purchase  of  Alaska.  There  was  no  subtle  state- 
craft involved,  and  no  significance  implied.  The  Russian  Govern-  ! 
ment  simply  grew  weary  of  looking  after  the  American  territory, 
which  was  an  element  of  annually  increasing  cost  to  the  Imperial 
treasury,  and  was  a  source  of  anxiety  and  weakness  in  all  European 
difficulties.  It  became  apparent  to  the  minds  of  the  governing  coun- 
cil at  St.  Petersburg  that  Russians  could  not,  or  at  least,  would  not 
settle  in  Russian  America  to  build  up  a  state  or  province,  or  do  any- 
thing else  there  which  would  redound  to  the  national  honor  and 
strength.  This  view  they  were  well  grounded  in,  after  the  ripe  ex- 
perience of  a  century's  control  and  ownership. 

One  period  in  that  history  of  Russian  rule  afforded  to  the  au- 
thorities much  rosy  anticipation.  This  interval  was  that  season 
in  the  affairs  of  the  Russian  American  Company  which  was  known 
as  Baranov's  administration,  in  which  time  the  revenues  to  the 
crown  were  rich,  and  annually  increasing.  But  Baranov  was  a  prac- 
tical business  man,  while  every  one  of  his  successors,  although  dis- 
tinguished men  in  the  naval  and  army  circles  of  the  home  govern- 
ment, was  not.  Comment  is  unnecessary.  The  change  became 
marked ;  the  revenues  rapidly  declined,  and  the  conduct  of  the 
operations  of  the  company  soon  became  a  matter  of  loss  and  not  of 
gain  to  the  stockholders  and  to  the  Imperial  treasury.  The  history, 
however,  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  this  great  Russian  trading  associa- 
tion is  a  most  interesting  one  ;  much  more  so  even  than  that  of  its 
ancient  though  still  surviving,  but  decrepit  rival,  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company. 

Those  murderous  factional  quarrels  of  the  competing  Russian 
traders  throughout  Alaska  in  1790-98  finally  compelled  the  Em- 
peror Paul  to  grant,  in  1799,  much  against  his  will,  a  charter  to  a 
consolidation  of  the  leading  companies  engaged  in  American  fur- 
hunting,  which  was  named  the  Russian  American  Company.  It 
also  embraced  the  Eastern  Siberian  and  Kamchatkau  colonies. 
That  charter  gave  to  this  company  the  exclusive  right  to  all  the  ter- 
ritory in  Alaska,  Kamchatka,  and  the  Siberian  Okotsk,  and  Kurile 
districts,  and  the  privileges  conferred  by  this  charter  were  very 
great  and  of  the  most  autocratic  nature  ;  but  at  the  same  time  the 
company  was  shrewdly  burdened  with  deftly  framed  obligations, 
being  compelled  to  maintain,  at  its  own  expense,  the  new  govern- 
ment of  the  country,  a  church  establishment,  a  military  force,  and, 


8  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

at  various  points  in  the  territory,  ample  magazines  of  provisions  and 
stores  to  be  used  by  the  Imperial  Government  for  its  naval  vessels 
or  land  troops  whenever  ordered.  At  a  time  when  all  such  stores 
had  to  be  transported  on  land  trails  over  the  desolate  wastes  of  Si- 
beria from  Kussia  to  the  Okotsk,  this  clause  in  the  franchise  was 
most  burdensome,  and  really  fatal  to  the  financial  success  of  the 
company. 

The  finesse  of  the  Russian  authorities  is  strikingly  manifested  in 
that  charter,  which  ostensibly  granted  to  the  Russian  American  Com- 
pany all  these  rights  of  exclusive  jurisdiction  to  a  vast  domain  with- 
out selfishly  exacting  a  single  tax  for  the  home  treasury ;  but  in 
fact  it  did  pay  an  immense  sum  annually  into  the  royal  coffers  in 
this  wa}r.  The  entire  fur  trade  in  those  days  was  with  China,  and 
all  the  furs  of  Alaska  were  bartered  by  the  Russians  with  the  Mon- 
gols for  teas,  which  were  sold  in  Russia  and  Europe.  The  records 
of  the  Imperial  treasury  show  that  the  duties  paid  into  it  by  this 
company  upon  these  teas  often  exceeded  two  millions  of  silver 
rubles  annually.* 

The  company  was  also  obliged,  by  the  terms  of  their  charter,  to 
make  experiments  in  the  establishment  of  agricultural  settlements 
wherever  the  soil  and  climate  of  Alaska  would  permit.  The  natives 
of  Alaska  were  freed  from  all  taxes  in  skins  or  money,  but  were 

*The  Russian  currency  is  always  expressed  in  kopecks  and  in  rubles. 
Gold  coinage  there  is  seldom  ever  seen,  and  was  never  used  in  Alaska.  The 
following  table  explains  itself  : 

1  copper  kopeck    =  1  silver  kopeck.     15  silver  kopecks  =  1  peteealtin. 

2  copper  kopecks  =  1  grosh.  20  silver  kopecks  =  1  dvoogreevenik. 

3  copper  kopecks  =  1  alteen.  25  silver  kopecks  =  1  chetvertak. 
5  copper  kopecks  =  1  peetak.  50  silver  kopecks  =  1  polteenah. 
5  silver  kopecks    —  1  peetak.               100  silver  kopecks  =  1  ruble. 

10  silver  kopecks    =  1  greevnah. 

The  silver  ruble  is  nearly  equal  to  seventy-five  cents  in  our  coin.  The 
paper  ruble  fluctuates  in  Russia  from  forty  to  fifty  cents,  specie  value  ;  in 
Alaska  it  was  rated  at  twenty  cents,  silver.  Much  of  the  "paper"  currency 
in  Alaska  during  Russian  rule  was  stamped  on  little  squares  of  walrus  hide. 

A  still  smaller  coin,  called  the  4i polooshka,"  worth  i  kopeck,  has  been  used 
in  Russia.  It  takes  its  name  from  a  hare-skin,  " ooshka,"  or  "little  ears," 
which,  before  the  use  of  money  by  the  Slavs,  was  one  of  the  lowest  articles 
of  exchange,  pol  signifying  half,  and  pohoshka,  half  a  hare's  skin.  From  an- 
other small  coin,  the  "deinga"  (equal  to  £  kopeck  in  value),  is  derived  the 
Russian  word  for  money,  deingah  or  deingie. 


DISCOVERY,    OCCUPATION,    AND   TRANSFER.  9 

obliged  to  furnish  to  the  company's  order  certain  quotas  of  sea- 
otter  hunters  every  season,  all  men  between  the  ages  of  eighteen 
and  fifty  being  liable  to  this  draft,  though  not  more  than  one-half 
of  any  number  thus  subject  could  be  enlisted  and  called  out  at  any 
one  time. 

The  management  of  this  great  organization  was  vested  in  an  ad- 
ministrative council,  composed  of  its  stockholders  in  St.  Petersburg, 
with  a  head  general  office  at  Irkutsk,  Siberia — a  chief  manager,  who 
was  to  reside  in  Alaska,  and  was  styled  "The  Governor,"  and  whose 
selection  was  ordered  from  the  officers  of  the  Imperial  navy  not 
lower  in  rank  than  post-captain.  That  high  official  and  Alaskan 
autocrat  had  an  assistant,  also  a  naval  officer,  and  each  received  pay 
from  the  Russian  Company,  in  addition  to  their  regular  govern- 
mental salaries,  which  were  continued  to  them  by  the  Crown. 

In  cases  of  mutiny  or  revolt  the  powers  of  the  governor  were  ab- 
solute. He  had  also  the  fullest  jurisdiction  at  all  times  over  offend- 
ers and  criminals,  with  the  nominal  exception  of  capital  crimes. 
Such  culprits  were  supposed  to  have  a  preliminary  trial,  then  were 
to  be  forwarded  to  the  nearest  court  of  justice  in  Siberia.  Some- 
thing usually  "  happened  "  to  save  them  the  tedious  journey,  how- 
ever. The  Russian  servants  of  the  company — its  numerous  retinue 
of  post-traders,  factors,  and  traders,  and  laborers  of  every  class 
around  the  posts — were  engaged  for  a  certain  term  of  years,  duly 
indentured.  When  the  time  expired  the  company  was  bound  to 
furnish  them  free  transportation  back  to  their  homes,  unless  the 
unfortunate  individuals  were  indebted  to  it ;  then  they  could  be  re- 
tained by  the  employer  until  the  debt  was  paid.  It  is  needless  to 
state  in  this  connection  that  an  incredibly  small  number  of  Russians 
were  ever  homeward  bound  from  Alaska  during  these  long  years  of 
Muscovitic  control  and  operation.  This  provision  of  debtor  vs.  cred- 
itor was  one  which  enabled  the  creditor  company  to  retain  in  its 
service  any  and  all  men  among  the  humbler  classes  whose  services 
were  desirable,  because  the  scanty  remuneration,  the  wretched  pit- 
tance in  lieu  of  wages,  allowed  them,  made  it  a  matter  of  utter  im- 
possibility to  keep  out  of  debt  to  the  company's  store.  Even  among 
the  higher  officials  it  is  surprising  to  scan  the  long  list  of  those  who, 
after  serving  one  period  of  seven  years  after  another,  never  seemed 
to  succeed  in  clearing  themselves  from  the  iron  grasp  of  indebted- 
ness to  the  great  corporation  which  employed  them. 

As  long  as  the  Russian  Company  maintained  a  military  or  naval 


10  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

force  in  the  Alaskan  territory,  at  its  own  expense,  these  forces  were 
entirely  at  the  disposal  of  its  governor,  who  passed  most  of  his  time 
in  elegant  leisure  at  Sitka,  where  the  finest  which  the  markets  and 
the  -vineyards  of  the  world  afforded  were  regularly  drawn  upon  to 
supply  his  table.  No  set  of  men  ever  lived  in  more  epicurean  com- 
fort and  abundance  than  did  those  courtly  chief  magistrates  of 
Alaska  who  succeeded  the  plain  Baranov  in  1818,  and  who  estab- 
lished and  maintained  the  vics-regal  comfort  of  their  physical  ex- 
istence uninterruptedly  until  it  was  surrendered,  with  the  cession 
of  their  calling,  in  1867. 

The  charter  of  the  Kussian  American  Company  was  first  granted 
for  a  period  of  twenty  years,  dating  at  the  outset  from  January  1, 
1799.  It  also  had  the  right  to  hoist  its  own  colors,  to  employ  naval 
officers  to  command  its  vessels,  and  to  subscribe  itself,  in  its  procla- 
mation or  petition,  "Under  the  highest  protection  of  his  Imperial 
Majesty,  the  Kussian  American  Company."  It  began  at  once  to 
attract  much  attention  in  Russia,  especially  among  moneyed  men  in 
St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow.  Nobles  and  high  officials  of  the  Gov- 
ernment eagerly  sought  shares  of  its  stock,  and  even  the  Emperor 
and  members  of  his  family  invested  in  them,  the  latter  making  their 
advances  in  this  direction  under  the  pretext  of  donating  their  portions 
to  schools  and  to  charitable  institutions.  It  was  the  first  enterprise 
of  the  kind  which  had  ever  originated  in  the  Russian  Empire,  and, 
favored  in  this  manner  by  the  Crown,  it  rose  rapidly  into  public 
confidence.  A  future  of  the  most  glowing  prosperity  and  stability 
was  prophesied  for  it  by  its  supporters — a  prosperity  and  power  as 
great  as  ever  that  of  the  British  East  India  Company — while  many 
indulged  dreams  of  Japanese  annexation  and  portions  of  China,  to- 
gether with  the  whole  American  coast,  including  California. 

But  that  clause  in  the  charter  of  the  company,  which  ordered 
that  the  chief  manager  of  its  affairs  in  Alaska  should  be  selected 
from  the  officers  of  the  Imperial  navy,  had  a  most  unfortunate  ef- 
fect upon  the  successful  conduct  of  the  business,  as  it  was  prose- 
cuted throughout  Russian  America.  After  Baranov's  suspension 
and  departure,  in  the  autumn  of  1818,  not  a  single  practical  mer- 
chant or  business  man  succeeded  him.  The  rigid  personal  scrutiny 
and  keen  trading  instinct  which  were  so  characteristic  of  him,  were 
followed  immediately  by  the  very  reverse  ;  hence  the  dividends  be- 
gan to  diminish  every  year,  while  the  official  writing,  on  the  other 
hand,  became  suddenly  more  voluminous,  graphic,  and  declared  a 


7 


DISCOVERY,    OCCUPATION,    AND   TRANSFER.  11 

steady  increase  of  prosperity.  Each  succeeding  chief  manager,  or 
governor,  vied  with  the  reports  of  his  predecessors  in  making  a 
record  of  great  display  in  the  line  of  continued  explorations,  erec- 
tion of  buildings,  construction  of  ships  of  all  sizes,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  divers  new  industries  and  manufactories,  agriculture, 
etc. 

The  second  term  of  the  Russian  American  Company's  charter 
expired  in  1841,  and  the  directors  and  shareholders  labored  most 
industriously  for  another  renewal ;  the  Crown  took  much  time  in 
consideration,  but  in  1844  the  new  grant  was  confirmed,  and 
rather  increased  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  company,  if  any- 
thing ;  still  matters  did  not  mend  financially,  the  affairs  of  the  large 
corporation  were  continued  in  the  same  reckless  management  by 
one  governor  after  the  other — with  the  same  extravagant  vice-regal 
display  and  costly  living — withjuseless  and  abortive  experiments  in 
agriculture,  in  mining  and  in  shipbuilding,  so  that  by  the  approach  v 
of  the  lapsing  of  the  third  term  of  twenty  years'  control,  in  1864, 
the  company  was  deeply  in  debt,  and  though  desirous  of  continuing 
the  business,  it  now  endeavored  to  transfer  the  cost  of  maintaining 
its  authority  in  Alaska  to  the  home  Government ;  to  this  the  Impe- 
rial Cabinet  was  both  unwilling  and  unable  to  accede,  for  Russia 
had  just  emerged  from  a  disastrous  and  expensive  war,  and  was  in 
no  state  of  mind  to  incur  a  single  extra  ruble  of  indebtedness 
which  she  could  avoid.  In  the  meantime,  pending  these  domestic 
difficulties  between  the  Crown  and  the  company,  the  charter  ex- 
pired ;  the  Government  refused  to  renew  it,  and  sought,  by  send- 
ing out  commissioners  to  Sitka,  for  a  solution  of  the  vexed  prob- 
lem. 

Now,  if  the  reader  will  mark  it,  right  at  this  time  and  at  this 
juncture,  arose  the  opportunity  which  was  quickly  used  by  Seward, 
as  Secretary  of  State,  to  the  ultimate  and  speedy  acquisition  of 
Russian  America  by  the  American  Union.  Those  difficulties  which 
the  situation  revealed  in  respect  to  the  affairs  of  the  Russian  Com- 
pany conflicting  with  the  desire  of  the  Imperial  Government,  made 
much  stir  in  all  interested  financial  circles.  A  small  number  of 
San  Francisco  capitalists  had  been  for  many  years  passive  stock- 
holders in  what  was  termed  by  courtesy  the  American  Russian  Ice 
Company — it  being  nothing  more  than  a  name  really,  inasmuch  as 
very  little  ever  was  or  has  been  done  in  the  way  of  shipping  ice  to 
California  from  Alaska.  Nevertheless  these  gentlemen  quickly  con- 


12  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

ceived  the  idea  of  taking  the  charter  of  the  Russian  Company  them- 
selves, and  offered  a  sum  far  in  excess  of  what  had  accrued  to  the 
Imperial  treasury  at  any  time  during  the  last  forty  years'  tenure  of 
the  old  contract.  The  negotiations  were  briskly  proceeding,  and 
were  in  a  fair  way  to  a  successful  ending,  when  it  informally  be- 
came known  to  Secretary  Seward,  who  at  once  had  his  interest  ex- 
cited in  the  subject,  and  speedily  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  if  it 
was  worth  paying  $5,000,000  by  a  handful  of  American  merchants 
for  a  twenty  years'  lease  of  Alaska,  it  was  well  worthy  the  cost  of 
buying  it  out  and  out  in  behalf  of  the  United  States  ;  inasmuch  as 
leasing  it,  as  the  Russians  intended  to,  was  a  virtual  surrender  of  it 
absolutely  for  the  period  named.  In  this  spirit  the  politic  Seward 
approached  the  Russian  Government,  and  the  final  consummation  of 
Alaska's  purchase  was  easily  effected,*  May,  1867,  and  formally 
transferred  to  our  flag  on  the  18th  of  October  following. 

If  the  Russian  Government  had  not  been  in  an  exceedingly 
friendly  state  of  mind  with  regard  to  the  American  Union,  this  some- 
what abrupt  determination  on  its  part  to  make  such  a  virtual  gift 
of  its  vast  Alaskan  domain  would  never  have  been  thought  of  in  St. 
Petersburg  for  a  moment.  Still,  it  should  be  well  understood  from 
the  Muscovitic  view,  that  in  presenting  Russian  America  to  us,  no 
loss  to  the  glory  or  the  power  of  the  Czar's  Crown  resulted  ;  no  sur- 
render of  smiling  hamlets,  towns  or  cities,  no  mines  or  mining,  no 
fish  or  fishing,  no  mills,  factories  or  commerce — nothing  but  her 
good  will  and  title  to  a  few  thousand  poor  and  simple  natives,  and 
a  large  wilderness  of  mountain,  tundra-moor  and  island-archipelago 
wholly  untouched,  unreclaimed  by  the  hand  of  civilized  man.  Rus- 
sia then,  as  now,  suffered  and  still  suffers,  from  an  embarrassment  of 
just  such  natural  wealth  as  that  which  we  so  hopefully  claim  as 
our  own  Alaska. 

*  $7,200,000  gold  was  paid  by  the  United  States  into  the  Imperial  treasury 
of  Russia  for  the  Territory  of  Alaska  ;  it  is  said  that  most  of  this  was  used  in 
St.  Petersburg  to  satisfy  old  debts  and  obligations  incurred  by  Alaskan  enter- 
prises, attorneys'  fees,  etc.  So,  in  short,  Russia  really  gave  her  American  pos- 
sessions to  the  American  people,  reaping  no  direct  emolument  or  profit  whatso- 
ever from  the  transfer. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FEATURES   OF   THE   SITKAN   REGION. 

The  Vast  Area  of  Alaska. — Difficulty  of  Comparison,  and  Access  to  her  Shores 
save  in  the  Small  Area  of  the  Sitkan  Region. — Many  Americans  as  Officers 
of  the  Government,  Merchants,  Traders  Miners,  etc.,  who  have  Visited 
Alaska  during  the  last  Eighteen  Years. — Full  Understanding  of  Alaskan 
Life  and  Resources  now  on  Record. — Beautiful  and  Extraordinary  Features 
of  the  Sitkan  Archipelago. — The  Decaying  Town  of  Wrangel. — The 
Wonderful  Glaciers  of  this  Region. — The  Tides.  Currents  and  Winds. — 
The  Forests  and  Vegetation  Omnipresent  in  this  Land-locked  Archipelago. 
—Indigenous  Berries. — Gloomy  Grandeur  of  the  Canons. — The  Sitkau 
Climate. — Neither  Cold  nor  Warm. — Excessive  Humidity. — Stickeen  Gold 
Excitement  of  1862  and  1875. — The  Decay  of  Cassiar. — The  Picturesque 
Bay  of  Sitka.  — The  Romance  and  Terror  of  Baranov's  Establishment  there 
in  1800-1805.— The  Russian  Life  and  Industries  at  Sitka.— The  Contrast 
between  Russian  Sitka  and  American  Sitka  a  Striking  One. 

"  For  hot,  cold,  moist  and  dry,  four  champions  fierce 
Strive  here  for  mastery."— MILTON. 

THE  general  contour  of  Alaska  is  correctly  rendered  on  any  and 
all  charts  published  to-day  ;  but  it  is  usually  drawn  to  a  very  much 
reduced  scale  and  tucked  away  into  a  corner  of  a  large  conven- 
tional map  of  the  United  States  and  Territories,  so  that  it  fails, 
in  this  manner,  to  give  an  adequate  idea  of  its  real  proportion — 
and  does  not  commonly  impress  the  eye  and  mind,  as  it  ought  to, 
at  first  sight  But  a  moment's  thoughtful  observation  shows  the 
vast  landed  extent  between  that  extreme  western  point  of  Attoo 
Island  in  the  Occident,  and  the  boundary  near  Fort  Simpson  in  the 
orient,  to  be  over  2,000  miles  ;  while  from  this  Alaskan  initial  post 
at  Simpson  to  Point  Barrow,  in  the  arctic,  it  covers  the  limit  of 
1,200  geographical  miles.*  The  superficial  magnitude  of  this  region 

*The  superficial  area  of  Alaska  is  512,000  square  miles;  or,  in  round 
numbers,  just  one  sixth  of  the  entire  extent  of  the  United  States  and  Terri- 
tories. Population  in  1880:  Whites,  430;  Creole,  1,756;  Eskimo,  17,617; 
Aleut,  2,145;  Athabascan,  3,927 ;  Thlinket,  6,763— total,  33,426. 


14  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

is  at  once  well  appreciated  when  the  largest  States  or  Territories  are 
each  held  up  in  contrast. 

The  bewildering  indentation  and  endless  length  of  the  coast,  the 
thousands  of  islands  and  islets,  the  numerous  volcanoes  and  tower- 
ing peaks,  and  the  maze  of  large  and  small  rivers,  make  a  com- 
parison of  Alaska,  in  any  other  respect  than  that  of  mere  super- 
ficial area,  wholly  futile  when  brought  into  contrast  with  the  rest 
of  the  North  American  continent.  Barred  out  as  she  is  from  close 
communion  with  her  new  relationship  and  sisterhood  in  the  Ameri- 
can Union  by  her  remote  situation,  and  still  more  so  by  the  un- 
happiness  of  her  climate,  she  is  not  going  to  be  inspected  from 
the  platforms  of  flying  express  trains  ;  and,  save  the  little  sheltered 
jaunt  by  steamer  from  Puget  Sound  to  Sitka  and  immediate  vicin- 
ity, no  ocean-tourists  are  at  all  likely  to  pry  into  the  lonely  nooks 
and  harbors  of  her  extended  coasts,  surf-beaten  and  tempest-swept 
as  they  are  every  month  in  the  year. 

But,  in  the  discharge  of  official  duty,  in  the  search  for  precious 
metals,  coal  and  copper,  in  the  desire  to  locate  profitable  fishing 
ventures,  and  in  the  interests  of  natural  science,  hundreds  of  ener- 
getic, quick-witted  Americans  have  been  giving  Alaska  a  very  keen 
examination  during  the  last  eighteen  years.  The  sum  of  their 
knowledge  throws  full  understanding  over  the  subject  of  Alaskan 
life  and  resources,  as  viewed  and  appreciated  from  the  American 
basis ;  there  is  no  difficulty  in  now  making  a  fair  picture  of  any 
section,  no  matter  how  remote,  or  of  conducting  the  reader  into 
the  very  presence  of  Alaska's  unique  inhabitants,  anywhere  they 
may  be  sought,  and  just  as  they  live  between  Point  Barrow  and  Cape 
Fox,  or  Attoo  and  the  Kinik  mouth. 

In  going  to  Alaska  to-day,  the  traveller  is  invariably  taken  into 
the  Sitkan  district,  and  no  farther  ;  naturally  he  goes  there  and  no- 
where beyond,  for  the  best  of  all  reasons :  he  can  find  no  means  of 
transportation  at  all  proper  as  regards  his  safety  and  comfort  which 
will  convey  him  outside  of  the  Alexander  archipelago.  To  this 
southeastern  region  of  Alaska,  however,  one  may  journey  every 
month  in  the  year  from  the  waters  of  the  Columbia  River  and 
Puget  Sound,  in  positive  pleasure,  on  a  seaworthy  steamer  fitted 
with  every  marine  adjunct  conducive  to  the  passenger's  comfortable 
existence  in  transit ;  it  is  a  landlocked  sea-trip  of  over  eighteen 
hundred  miles,  made  often  to  and  from  Sitka  without  tremor 
enough  on  the  part  of  the  vessel  even  to  spill  a  brimming  glass  of 


FEATURES   OF   THE   SITKAN   REGION.  15 

water  upon  the  cabin  table.  If  fortunate  enough  to  make  this  trip 
of  eight  or  nine  hundred  miles  up,  and  then  down  again,  when  the 
fog  is  not  omnipotent  and  rain  not  incessant,  the  tourist  will  record 
a  vision  of  earthly  scenery  grander  than  the  most  vivid  imagination 
can  devise,  and  the  recollection  of  its  glories  will  never  fade  from 
his  delighted  mind. 

If,  however,  you  desire  to  visit  that  great  country  to  the  west- 
ward and  the  northwest,  no  approach  can  be  made  via  Sitka — no 
communication  between  that  region  and  this  portion  of  Alaska  ever 
takes  place,  except  accidentally  ;  the  traveller  starts  from  San  Fran- 
cisco either  in  a  codfishing  schooner,  a  fur-trader's  sloop,  or  steamer, 
and  sails  out  into  the  vast  Pacific  on  a  bee-line  for  Kadiak  or 
Oonalashka ;  and,  from  these  two  chief  ports  of  arrival  and  depart- 
ure, he  laboriously  works  his  way,  if  bent  upon  seeing  the  country, 
constantly  interrupted  and  continually  beset  with  all  manner  of 
hindrances  to  the  progress  of  his  journey  by  land  and  sea.  These 
physical  obstructions  in  the  path  of  travel  to  all  points  of  interest 
in  Alaska,  save  those  embraced  in  the  Sitkan  district,  will  bar  out 
and  deprive  thousands  from  ever  beholding  the  striking  natural 
characteristics  of  a  wonderful  volcanic  region  in  Cook's  Inlet  and 
the  Aleutian  chain  of  islands.  When  that  time  shall  arrive  in  the 
dim  future  which  will  order  and  sustain  the  sailing  of  steamers  in 
regular  rotation  of  transit  throughout  the  waters  of  this  most  in- 
teresting section,  then,  indeed,  will  a  source  of  infinite  satisfaction 
be  afforded  to  those  who  love  to  contemplate  the  weird  and  the 
sublime  in  nature  ;  meanwhile,  visits  to  that  region  in  small  sailing- 
craft  are  highly  risky  and  unpleasant — boisterous  winds  are  chronic 
and  howling  gales  are  frequent. 

The  beautiful  and  extraordinary  features  of  preliminary  travel 
up  the  British  Columbia  coast  will  have  prepared  the  mind  for  a 
full  enjoyment  and  comprehension  of  your  first  sight  of  Alaska. 
If  you  are  alert,  you  will  be  on  deck  and  on  good  terms  with  the 
officer  in  charge  when  the  line  is  crossed  on  Dixon  Sound,  and  the 
low  wooded  crowns  of  Zayas  and  Dundas  Islands,  now  close  at  hand, 
are  speedily  left  in  the  wake  as  the  last  landmarks  of  foreign  soil. 
To  the  left,  as  the  steamer  enters  the  beautiful  water  of  Clarence 
Straits,  the  abrupt,  irregular,  densely  wooded  shores  of  Prince  of 
Wales  Island  rise  as  lofty  walls  of  timber  and  of  rock,  mossy  and 
sphagnous,  shutting  out  completely  a  hasty  glimpse  of  the  great 
Pacific  rollers  afforded  in  the  Sound  ;  while  on  the  right  hand  you 


16 


OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 


turn  to  a  delighted  contemplation  of  those  snowy  crests  of  the 
towering  coast  range  which,  though  thirty  and  fifty  miles  distant, 
seem  to  fairly  be  in  reach,  just  over  and  back  of  the  rugged  tree- 
clad  elevations  of  mountainous  islands  that  rise  abruptly  from 
the  sea-canal  in  every  direction.  Not  a  gentle  slope  to  the  water 
can  be  seen  on  either  side  of  the  vessel  as  you  glide  rapidly  ahead  ; 
the  passage  is  often  so  narrow  that  the  wavelets  from  the  steamer's 


Lodges  in  a  Vast  Wilderness. 

wheel  break  and  echo  back  loudly  on  your  ear  from  the  various 
strips  of  ringing  rocky  shingle  at  the  base  of  bluffy  intersections. 

If,  by  happy  decree  of  fate,  fog-banks  do  not  shut  suddenly 
down  upon  your  pleased  vision,  a  rapid  succession  of  islands  and 
myriads  of  islets,  all  springing  out  boldly  from  the  cold  blue-green 
and  whitish-gray  waters  which  encircle  their  bases,  will  soon  tend 
to  confuse  and  utterly  destroy  all  sense  of  locality  ;  the  steamer's 
path  seems  to  be  in  a  circle,  to  lead  right  back  to  where  she  started 
from,  into  another  equally  mysterious  labyrinthine  opening  :  then 


FEATURES   OF  THE   SITKAX   REGION.  17 

the  curious  idiosyncrasy  possesses  you  by  which  you  seem  to  see  in 
the  scenery  just  ahead  an  exact  resemblance  to  the  bluffs,  the  sum- 
mits and  the  cascades  which  you  have  just  left  behind.  Your  em- 
phatic expression  aloud  of  this  belief  will,  most  likely,  arouse  some 
fellow-passenger  who  is  an  old  voyageur,  and  he  will  take  a  guiding 
oar  :  he  will  tell  you  that  the  numerous  broad  smooth  tracks,  cut 
through  the  densely  wooded  mountain  slopes  from  the  snow  lines 
above  abruptly  down  to  the  very  sea  below,  are  the  paths  of  ava- 
lanches ;  that  if  you  will  only  crane  your  neck  enough  so  as  to  look 
right  aloft  to  a  certain  precipice  now  almost  hanging  3,000  feet 
high  and  over  the  deck  of  the  steamer,  there  you  will  see  a  few 
small  white  specks  feebly  outlined  against  the  grayish-red  back- 
ground of  the  rocks — these  are  mountain  goats  ;  he  tells  you  that 
those  stolid  human  beings  who  are  squatting  in  a  large  dug-out 
canoe  are  "  Siwashes,"  halibut-fishing — and  as  these  savages  stu- 
pidly stare  at  the  big  "  Boston  "  vessel  swiftly  passing,  with  uplifted 
paddles  or  keeping  slight  headway,  you  return  their  gaze  with  in- 
terest, and  the  next  turn  of  the  ship's  rudder  most  likely  throws 
into  full  view  a  "rancherie,"  in  which  these  Indians  permanently 
reside  ;  your  kindly  guide  then  eloquently  describes  the  village 
and  descants  with  much  vehemence  upon  the  frailties  and  short- 
comings of  "  Siwashes  "  in  general — at  least  all  old-stagers  in  this 
country  agree  in  despising  the  aboriginal  man.  On  the  steamer 
forges  through  the  still,  unruffled  waters  of  intricate  passages, 
now  almost  scraping  her  yard-arms  on  the  face  of  a  precipitous 
headland — then  rapidly  shooting  out  into  the  heart  of  a  lovely  bay, 
broad  and  deep  enough  to  float  in  room  and  safety  a  naval  flotilla 
of  the  first  class,  until  a  long,  unusually  low,  timbered  point  seems 
to  run  out  ahead  directly  in  the  track,  when  your  guide,  giving  a 
quick  look  of  recognition,  declares  that  Wrangel*  town  lies  just 

*  When  the  Cassiar  mines  in  British  Columbia  were  prosperous,  Wrangel 
was  a  very  busy  little  transfer-station — the  busiest  spot  in  Alaska  ;  then  be- 
tween four  and  five  thousand  miners  passed  through  every  spring  and  fall  as 
they  went  up  to  and  came  down  from  the  diggings  on  the  Stickeen  tributaries 
above  ;  they  left  a  goodly  share,  if  not  most,  of  their  earnings  among  the 
store  and  saloon  keepers  of  Wrangel.  The  fort  is  now  deserted — the  town 
nearly  so  ;  the  whole  place  is  rapidly  reverting  to  the  Siwashes.  Government 
buildings  erected  here  by  the  U.  S.  military  authorities,  which  cost  the  pub- 
lic treasury  $150,000,  were  sold  in  1877,  when  the  troops  were  withdrawn, 
for  a  few  hundreds.  The  main  street  is  choked  with  decaying  logs  and 
stumps.  A  recent  visitor  declares,  upon  looking  at  the  condition  of  this  place 
2 


18  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

around  it,  and  you  speedily  make  your  inspection  of  an  Alaskan 
hamlet. 

Owing  to  the  dense  forest-covering  of  the  country,  sections  of 
those  clays  and  sands  which  rest  in  most  of  the  hollows  are  seldom 
seen,  only  here  and  there  where  the  banks  of  a  brook  are  cut  out, 
or  where  an  avalanche  has  stripped  a  clear  track  through  the  jungle, 
do  you  get  a  chance  to  see  the  soil  in  southeastern  Alaska.  There 
are  frequent  low  points  to  the  islands,  composed,  where  beaten  upon 
by  the  sea,  of  fine  rocky  shingle,  which  form  a  flat  of  greater  or  less 
width  under  the  bluffs  or  steep  mountain  or  hill  slopes,  about  three 
to  six  feet  above  present  high-water  mark  ;  they  become,  in  most 
cases,  covered  with  a  certain  amount  of  good  soil,  upon  which  a 
rank  growth  of  grass  and  shrubbery  exists,  and  upon  which  the  In- 
dians love  to  build  their  houses,  camp  out,  etc.  These  small  flats, 
so  welcome  and  so  rare  in  this  pelagic  wilderness,  have  evidently 
been  produced  by  the  waves  acting  at  different  times  in  opposing 
directions. 

In  all  of  those  channels  penetrating  the  mainland  and  intervening 
between  the  numerous  islands  from  the  head  of  Glacier  Bay  and 
Lynn  Canal  down  to  the  north  end  of  Vancouver's  Island,  marks, 
or  glacial  scratchings,  indicative  of  the  sliding  of  a  great  ice-sheet, 
are  to  be  found,  generally  in  strict  conformity  with  the  trend  of 
the  passages,  wherever  the  rocks  were  well  suited  for  their  preserva- 
tion ;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  ice  of  the  coast  range,  at  one 
time,  reached  out  as  far  west  as  the  outer  islands  which  fringe  the 
entire  Alaskan  and  British  Columbian  coast.  Many  of  the  boulders 
on  the  beaches  are  plainly  glaciated ;  and,  as  they  are  often 
bunched  in  piles  upon  the  places  where  found,  they  seem  to  have 
not  been  disturbed  since  they  were  dropped  there.  The  shores  are 


in  the  summer  of  1883  :  "Fort  Wrangel  is  a  fit  introduction  to  Alaska.  It  is 
most  weird  and  wild  of  aspect.  It  is  the  key-note  to  the  sublime  and  lonely 
scenery  of  the  north.  It  is  situated  at  the  foot  of  conical  hills,  at  the  head 
of  a  gloomy  harbor,  filled  with  gloomy  islands.  Frowning  cliffs,  beetling 
crags,  stretch  away  on  all  sides  surrounding  it.  Lofty  promontories  guard  it, 
backed  by  range  after  range  of  sharp,  volcanic  peaks,  which  in  turn  are  lost 
against  lines  of  snowy  mountains.  It  is  the  home  of  storms.  You  see  that 
in  the  broken  pines  on  the  cliff-sides,  in  the  fine  wave-swept  rocks,  in  the 
lowering  mountains.  There  is  not  a  bright  touch  in  it — not  in  its  straggling 
lines  of  native  huts,  each  with  a  demon-like  totem  beside  it,  nor  in  the  fort, 
for  that  is  dilapidated  and  fast  sinking  into  decay." 


*   i 

:          'i.      If    M 


FEATURES    OF   THE   SITKAN   REGION.  19 

everywhere  abrupt  and  the  water  deep.  The  entire  front  of  this 
lofty  coast-range  chain,  that  forms  the  eastern  Alaskan  boundary 
from  the  summit  of  Mt.  St.  Elias  to  the  mouth  of  Portland  Canal, 
ts  glacier-bearing  to-day,  and  you  can  scarcely  push  your  way  to  the 
head  of  any  canon,  great  or  small,  without  finding  an  eternal  ice- 
sheet  anchored  there  :  careful  estimation  places  the  astonishing  ag- 
gregate of  over  5,000  living  glaciers,  of  greater  or  less  degree,  that 
we  silently  but  forever  travelling  down  to  the  sea,  in  this  region. 

Those  congealed  rivers  which  take  their  origin  in  the  flanks  of 
Mt.  Fair  weather  *  and  Mt.  Crillonf  are  simply  unrivalled  in  frigid 
grandeur  by  anything  that  is  lauded  in  Switzerland  or  the  Hima- 
layas, though  the  vast  bulk  of  the  Greenland  ice-sheets  is,  of  course, 
not  even  feebly  approximated  by  them  ;  the  waters  of  the  channels 
which  lead  up  from  the  ocean  to  the  feet  of  these  large  glaciers  of 
Cross  Sound  and  Lynn  Canal,  are  full  of  bobbing  icebergs  that 
have  been  detached  from  the  main  sheet,  in  every  possible  shape 
and  size — a  detachment  which  is  taking  place  at  intervals  of  every 
few  moments,  giving  rise,  in  so  doing,  to  a  noise  like  parks  of  ar- 
tillery ;  but,  of  course,  these  bergs  are  very,  very  small  compared 
with  those  of  Greenland,  and  only  a  few  ever  escape  from  the  intri- 
cate labyrinth  of  fiords  which  are  so  characteristic  of  this  Sitkan 
district.  An  ice-sheet  comes  down  the  canon,  and  as  it  slides  into 
the  water  of  the  canal  or  bay,  wherever  it  may  be,  the  pressure  ex- 
erted by  the  buoyancy  of  the  partially  submerged  mass  causes  it  to 
crack  off  in  the  wildest  lines  of  cleavage,  and  rise  to  the  surface  in 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  glittering  fragments  ;  or  again,  it  may 
slide  out  over  the  water  on  a  rocky  bed,  and,  as  it  advances,  break 
off  and  fall  down  in  thundering  salvos,  that  ring  and  echo  in  the 
gloomy  canons  with  awe-inspiring  repetition.  At  the  head  and 
around  the  sides  of  a  large  indentation  of  Cross  Sound  there  are 
no  less  than  five  immense,  complete  glaciers,  which  take  their  origin 
between  Fairweather  and  Crillon  Mountains,  each  one  reaching  and 
discharging  into  tide-water  :  here  is  a  vast,  a  colossal  glacier  in  full 
exhibition,  and  so  easy  of  access  that  the  most  delicate  woman 
could  travel  to,  and  view  it,  since  an  ocean-steamer  can  push  to  its 
very  sea-walls,  without  a  moment's  serious  interruption,  where  from 
her  decks  may  be  scanned  the  singular  spectacle  of  an  icy  river  from 
three  to  eight  miles  wide,  fifty  miles  long,  and  varying  in  depth 

*  14,708  feet.  f  13,400  feet 


20  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

from  fifty  to  five  hundred  feet.  Between  the  west  side  of  this  frozen 
bay  and  the  water,  all  the  ground,  high  and  low,  is  covered  by  a 
mantle  of  ice  from  one  thousand  to  three  thousand  feet  thick ! 

Here  is  an  absolute  realism  of  what  once  took  place  over  the  en- 
tire northern  continent — a  vivid  picture  of  the  actual  process  of 
degradation  which  the  earth  and  its  life  were  subjected  to  during 
that  long  glacial  epoch  which  bound  up  in  its  iron  embrace  of 
death  just  about  half  of  the  globe.*  This  startling  exhibition  of  a 
mighty  glacier  with  its  cold,  multitudinous  surroundings  in  Cross 
Sound,  is  alone  well  worth  the  time  and  cost  of  the  voyage  to  be- 
hold it,  and  it  alone.  There  is  not  room  in  this  narrative  for  fur- 
ther dwelling  upon  that  fascinating  topic,  for  a  full  description  of 
such  a  gelid  outpouring  would  in  itself  constitute  a  volume. 

Throughout  this  archipelago  of  the  Sitkan  district,  the  strongest 
tidal  currents  prevail :  they  flow  at  places  like  mill-races,  and  again 
they  scarcely  interfere  with  the  ship  or  canoe.  The  flood-tides  usu- 
ally run  northward  along  the  outer  coasts,  and  eastward  in  Dixon's 
Entrance  ;  the  weather,  which  is  generally  boisterous  on  the  ocean 
side  of  the  islands,  and  on  which  the  swell  of  the  Pacific  never 
ceases  to  break  with  great  fury,  is  very  much  subdued  inside,  and 
the  best  indication  of  these  tidal  currents  is  afforded  by  the  stream- 
ing fronds  of  kelp  that  grow  abundantly'  in  all  of  these  multitudi- 
nous fiords,  and  which  are  anchored  securely  in  all  depths,  from  a 
few  feet  to  that  of  seventy  fathoms :  when  the  tide  is  running  through 
some  of  those  narrow  passages,  especially  at  ebb,  it  forms,  with  the 
whip-like  stems  of  seaweed,  a  true  rapid  with  much  white  water, 
boiling  and  seething  in  its  wild  rushing  ;  these  alternations  between 
high  and  low  water  here  are  exceedingly  variable — the  spring-tides 
at  some  places  are  as  great  as  eighteen  feet  of  rise,  and  a  few  miles 
beyond,  where  the  coast-expansion  is  great,  it  will  not  be  more  than 
three  or  four  feet. 

Those  baffling  tides  and  the  currents  they  create,  together  with 
gusty  squalls  of  rain  or  sleet,  and  irregular  winds,  render  the 
navigation  of  this  inside  passage  wholly  impracticable  for  sailing- 
vessels — they  gladly  seek  the  open  ocean  where  they  can  haul  and 
fill  away  to  advantage  even  if  it  does  blow  "great  guns  ;"  the  high 
mural  walls  of  the  Alexander  fiords  on  both  sides,  usually,  of  the 


*  I  am  aware  that  geologists  do  not  all  subscribe  to  this  view,  which  was  the 
doctrine  of  Agassiz. 


FEATURES    OF  THE   SITKAN   REGION.  21 

channels,  cause  the  wind  to  either  blow  up  them,  or  down  :  it  liter- 
ally funnels  through  with  terrific  velocity  when  the  "  southeaster's  " 
prevail,  and  nothing,  not  even  the  steamer,  braves  the  fury  of  such 
a  storm. 

The  great  growth  of  trees  everywhere  here,  and  the  practical 
impenetrability  of  these  forests  on  foot,  owing  to  brush  and  bushes, 
all  green  and  growing  in  tangled  jungle,  is  caused  by  the  compara- 
tive immunity  of  this  country  from  the  scourge  of  forest  fires  :  this 
is  due  to  a  phenomenal  dampness  of  the  climate — it  rains,  rains,  and 
drizzles  here  two-thirds  of  the  time.  The  heaviest  rains  are  local, 
usually  occurring  on  the  western  or  ocean  slopes  of  the  islands 
where  the  sea-winds,  surcharged  with  moisture,  first  meet  a  barrier 
to  their  flow  and  are  thrown  up  into  the  cooler  regions  of  the 
atmosphere.  It  will  be  often  noticed,  from  the  steamer,  that  while 
heavy  rain  is  falling  on  the  lofty  hills  and  mountains  of  Prince  of 
Wales  Island,  it  is  clear  and  bright  directly  over  the  Strait  of 
Clarence  to  the  eastward,  and  not  far  distant.  June  and  July  are 
the  most  agreeable  seasons  of  the  year  in  which  to  visit  the  Sitkan 
district,  as  a  rule. 

Many  thoughtful  observers  have  questioned  the  truth  of  the 
exuberant  growth  of  forestry  peculiar  to  this  region,  as  being  due 
to  that  incessant  rainfall  mentioned  above  ;  no  doubt,  it  is  not 
wholly  so;  but  yet,  if  the  ravages  of  fire  ran  through  the  islets 
of  the  archipelago,  as  it  does  in  the  interior  slightly  to  the  east- 
ward, the  same  order  of  vegetation  here  would  be  soon  noted  as  we 
note  it  there  to-day  ;  everywhere  that  you  ascend  the  inlets  of  the 
mainland,  the  shores  become  steep  and  rocky,  with  no  beach,  or 
very  little  ;  the  trees  become  scrubby  in  appearance,  and  are 
mingled  with  much  dead  wood  (brule).  Scarcely  any  soil  clothes 
the  slopes,  and  extensive  patches  of  bare  rock  crop  out  frequently 
everywhere. 

Although  the  forest  is  omnipresent  up  to  snow-line  in  this 
great  land-locked  Sitkan  district,  yet  it  difiers  much  in  rankness  of 
growth  and  consequent  value;  it  nowhere  clothes  the  ridges  or  the 
summits,  which  are  1,500  to  2,000  feet  above  tide-level;  these  peaks 
and  rocky  elevations  are  usually  bare,  and  show  a  characteristically 
green-gray  tint  due  to  the  sphagnous  mosses  and  dwarfed  brier  and 
bushes  peculiar  to  this  altitude,  making  an  agreeable  and  sharp  con- 
trast to  that  sombre  and  monotonous  line  of  the  conifers  below.  The 
variety  is  limited,  being  substantially  confined  to  three  evergreens, 


22  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

the  spruce  (Abies  sitkensis  and  menziesii),  the  hemlock  (Abies  merten- 
siana),  and  the  cedar  (Thuja  gigantea).  The  last  is  the  most  valu- 
able, is  found  usually  growing  near  the  shores,  and  never  in  great 
quantities  at  any  one  place;  wherever  a  sheltered  flat  place  is  found, 
there  these  trees  seem  to  grow  in  the  greatest  luxuriance.  In  the 
narrower  passages,  where  no  seas  can  enter,  the  forest  seems  almost 
to  root  in  the  beach,  and  its  branches  hang  pendent  to  the  tides, 
and  dip  therein  at  high  water.  Where  a  narrow  beach,  capped 
with  warm  sands  and  soil,  occurs  in  sheltered  nooks,  vividly  green 
grass  spreads  down  until  it  reaches  the  yellow  seaweed  "  tangle  " 
that  grows  everywhere  in  such  places  reached  by  high  tide,  for, 
owing  to  the  dampness  of  the  climate,  a  few  days  exposure  at  neap- 
tides  fails  to  injure  this  f ucoid  growth.  Ferns,  oh !  how  beautiful 
they  are ! — also  grow  most  luxuriantly  and  even  abundantly  upon 
the  fallen,  rotting  tree-trunks,  and  even  into  the  living  arboreal 
boughs,  and  green  mosses  form  great  club-like  masses  on  the 
branches. 

Large  trunks  of  this  timber,  overthrown  and  dead,  become  here 
at  once  perfect  gardens  of  young  trees,  moss,  and  bushes,  even 
though  lying  high  above  the  ground  and  supported  on  piles  of  yet 
earlier  windfall.  Similar  features  characterize  the  littoral  forests 
of  the  entire  landlocked  region  of  the  northwest  coast,  from  Puget 
Sound  to  the  mouth  of  Lynn  Canal. 

In  addition  to  these  overwhelmingly  dominant  conifers  already 
specified,  a  few  cottonwoods  and  swamp-maples  and  alders  are  scat- 
tered in  the  jungle  which  borders  the  many  little  streams  and  the 
large  rivers  like  the  Stickeen,  Tahko,  and  Chilkat.  Crab-apples 
(Pyrus  rivularis)  form  small  groves  on  Prince  of  Wales  Island,  where 
the  beach  is  low  and  capped  with  good  soil.  Then  on  the  exposed, 
almost  bare  rocks  of  the  western  hilltops  of  the  islands  of  the  archi- 
pelago, a  scrub  pine  (Pinus  contorta)  is  found ;  it  also  grows  in 
small  clumps  here  and  there  just  below  the  snow-line  on  the  moun- 
tains generally.  Berries  abound ;  the  most  important  being  the 
sal-lal  (Gaultheria  shallow) — they  are  eaten  fresh  in  great  quantities, 
and  are  also  dried  for  use  in  winter — and  another  small  raspberry 
(Eubus  sp.),  a  currant  (Ribes  sp.),  and  a  large  juicy  whortleberry. 
Of  course  these  berries  do  not  have  the  flavor  or  body  which  we 
prize  at  home  in  our  small  fruits  of  similar  character — but  up  here 
they,  in  the  absence  of  anything  better  or  as  good,  are  eaten  with 
avidity  and  relish,  even  by  the  white  travellers  who  happen  to  be 


II 

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FEATURES    OF  THE   SITKAN  REGION.  23 

around  when  the  fruit  is  ripe  ;  wild  strawberries  appear  in  sheltered 
nooks  ;  a  wild  gooseberry  too  is  found,  but  it,  like  the  crab-apple  of 
Prince  of  Wales  Island,  is  not  a  favorite — it  is  drastic. 

We  find  in  many  places  throughout  this  district  highland  moors, 
which  constitute  the  level  plateau-summits  of  ridges  and  mountain 
foothills  ;  these  areas  are  always  sparsely  timbered,  covered  by  a 
thick  carpet  of  sphagnous  heather,  and  literally  brilliant  in  June 
and  July  with  the  spangled  radiance  of  an  extensive  variety  of 
flowering  annuals  and  biennials.  In  these  moorland  mantles,  which 
are  usually  soaked  full  of  moisture  so  as  to  be  fairly  spongy  under 
foot,  cranberries  flourish,  of  excellent  flavor,  and  quite  abundant, 
though,  compared  with  our  choice  Jersey  and  Cape  Cod  samples, 
they  are  very  small. 

Certainly  the  scenery  of  this  Venetian  wilderness  of  Lower  Alaska 
is  wonderful  and  unrivalled — the  sounds,  the  gulfs,  bays,  fiords, 
and  river-estuaries  are  magnificent  sheets  of  water,  and  the  snow- 
capped peaks,  which  spring  abruptly  from  their  mirrored  depths, 
give  the  scene  an  ever-changing  aspect.  At  places  the  ship  seems 
to  really  be  at  sea,  then  she  enters  a  canal  whose  lofty  walls  of  sye- 
nite, slate,  and  granite  shut  out  the  light  of  day,  and  against  which 
her  rigging  scrapes,  and  the  passenger's  hand  may  almost  touch — 
a  hundred  thousand  sparkling  streams  fall  in  feathery  cascades, 
adown  their  mural  heights,  and  impetuous  streams  beat  themselves 
into  white  foam  as  they  leap  either  into  the  eternal  depths  of  the 
Pacific  or  its  deep  arms. 

Probably  no  one  point  in  the  Sitkan  archipelago  is  invested  by 
nature  with  a  grander,  gloomier  aspect  than  is  that  region  known 
as  the  eastern  shore  of  Prince  Frederick's  Sound,  where  the  moun- 
tains of  the  mainland  drop  down  abruptly  to  the  seaside  ;  here  a 
spur  of  the  coast  range,  opposite  Mitgon  Islet,  presents  an  unusu- 
ally dreadful  appearance,  for  it  rises  to  a  vast  height  with  an  inclin- 
ation toward  and  over  the  water :  the  serrated,  jagged  summits  are 
loaded  with  an  immense  quantity  of  ice  and  snow,  which,  together 
with  the  overhanging  masses  of  rock,  seems  to  cause  its  sea-laved 
base  to  fairly  totter  under  that  stupendous  weight  overhead  ;  the 
passage  beneath  it,  in  the  canoe  of  a  traveller,  is  simply  awful  in  its 
dread  suggestion,  and  few  can  refrain  from  involuntary  shuddering 
as  they  sail  by  and  gaze  upward. 

A  word  about  the  Sitkan  climate  :  you  are  not  going  to  be  very 
cold  here  even  in  the  most  severe  of  winters,  nor  will  you  complain 


24  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

of  heat  in  the  most  favorable  of  summers ;  it  may  be  best  epitomized 
by  saying  in  brief  that  the  weather  is  such  that  you  seldom  ever  find 
a  clean  cake  of  ice  frozen  in  the  small  fresh-water  ponds  six  inches 
thick ;  and  you  never  will  experience  a  summer  warm  enough  to 
ripen  a  head  of  oats.  The  first  impression  usually  made  upon  the 
visitor  is  that  it  is  raining,  raining  all  the  time,  not  a  pouring  rain 
or  shower,  then  clearing  up  quickly,  but  a  steady  "  driz-driz-driz- 
zle  "  ;  it  rained  upon  the  author  in  this  manner  seventeen  consecu- 
tive days  in  October,  1866,  accompanied  by  winds  from  all  points 
of  the  compass.  Therefore,  by  contrast,  the  relatively  clear  and  dry 
months  of  June  and  July  in  the  archipelago  are  really  delightful — 
clear  and  pleasant  in  the  sun,  and  cool  enough  for  fires  indoors — then 
you  have  about  eighteen  hours  of  sunshine  and  six  hours  of  twilight. 

It  is  very  seldom  that  the  zero-point  is  ever  recorded  at  tide-level 
during  winter  here,  though  in  January,  1874,  it  fell  to  —7°  Fah. ;  the 
thermometer  at  no  time  in  the  winter  preceding  registered  lower 
than  11°  above.  A  late  blustering  spring  and  an  early,  vigorous 
winter  often  join  hands  over  a  very  backward  summer — about  once 
or  twice  every  five  years  ;  these  are  the  backward  seasons  ;  then  the 
first  frost  in  the  villages  and  tidal  bottoms  occurs  about  the  28th 
to  31st  of  October,  soon  followed  by  the  rain  turning  to  snow,  being 
as  much  as  three  feet  deep  on  the  level  at  times.  Severe  thunder- 
storms, with  lightning,  often  take  place  during  these  violent  snow- 
falls in  the  winter — strange  to  say  they  are  not  heard  or  seen  in  the 
summer !  Snow  and  rain  and  sleet  continue  till  the  end  of  April — 
sometimes  as  late  as  the  10th  of  May,  before  giving  way  to  the  en- 
joyable season  of  June  and  July.  Then  again  the  mild  winters  are 
marked  by  no  frost  to  speak  of — perhaps  the  coldest  period  will  have 
been  in  November,  little  or  no  snow,  six  or  seven  inches  at  the  most, 
and  much  clear  and  bracing  weather. 

The  average  rainfall  in  the  Sitkan  district  is  between  eighty-four 
and  eighty-six  inches  annually — it  is  a  very  steady  average,  and 
makes  no  heavier  showing  than  that  presented  by  the  record  kept 
on  the  coast  of  Oregon  and  Vancouver's  Island.  A  pleasant  season 
in  the  archipelago  will  give  the  observer  about  one  hundred  fair 
days  ;  the  rest  of  the  year  will  be  given  over  to  rain,  snow,  and  foggy- 
shrouds,  which  wet  like  rain  itself.*  A  most  careful  search  during 


*  The  chief  signal  officer  of  the  U.  S.  Army  has  had  a  number  of  meteoro* 
logical  observers  stationed  at  half  a  dozen  different  posts  in  Alaska,  and  has 


FEATURES   OF  THE   SITKAN    REGION.  25 

the  last  hundred  years  has  failed  to  disclose  in  all  the  extent  of  this 
Sitkan  region  an  arable  or  bottom-land  piece  large  enough  to  rep- 
resent a  hundred-acre  farm,  save  in  the  valley  of  the  Tahkoo  River, 
where  for  forty  or  fifty  miles  a  low,  level  plateau  extends,  varying 
in  width  from  a  few  rods  to  half  a  mile,  between  the  steep  mountain 
walls  that  compass  it  about.  Bed-top  and  wild  timothy  grasses  grow 
here  in  the  most  luxuriant  style,  as  they  do  for  that  matter  every- 
where else  in  the  archipelago  on  little  patches  of  open  land  along 
the  streams  and  sea-beaches ;  the  humidity  of  the  climate  makes 
the  cost  of  curing  hay,  however,  very  great,  and  prevents  the  profit- 
able ranging  of  cattle. 

We  have  strayed  from  the  landing  which  we  made  at  "Wrangel, 
and,  returning  to  the  contemplation  of  that  town,  candor  compels 
an  exclamation  of  disappointment — it  is  not  inviting,  for  we  see 
nothing  but  a  straggling  group  of  hastily  erected  shanties  and  frame 
store-houses,  which  face  a  rickety  wharf  and  a  dirty  trackway  just 
above  the  beach-level ;  a  dense  forest  and  tangled  jungle  spring  up 
like  a  forbidding  wall  at  the  very  rear  of  the  houses,  which  are  sup- 
plemented by  a  number  of  Indian  rancheries  that  skirt  the  beach 
just  beyond,  and  hug  the  point ;  this  place,  however,  though  now  in 
sad  decline,  was  a  place  of  much  life  and  importance  during  1875- 
79,  when  the  Cassiar  gold-excitement  in  British  Columbia,  via  the 
Stickeen  River,  drew  many  hundreds  of  venturesome  miners  up  here, 
and  through  Wrangel  en  route.  This  forlorn  spot  was  still  earlier 
a  centre  of  even  greater  stir  and  activity,  for,  in  1831,  the  Russians, 
fearing  that  they  would  be  forced  into  war  with  the  Hudson's  Bay 
people,  made  a  quick  movement,  came  down  here  from  Sitka,  and 
built  a  bastioned  log  fortress  right  where  the  present  Siwash  ranch- 
eries stand.  Lieutenant  Zarenbo,  who  engineered  the  construction, 
called  his  work  "  R^doute  Saint  Dionys,"  and  had  scarcely  got  un- 
der cover  when  he  was  attacked  by  several  large  bateaux,  manned 

had  this  service  fully  organized  up  there  during  the  last  ten  years  ;  the  in- 
quirer can  easily  gain  access  to  a  large  amount  of  published  data  touching  this 
subject. 

The  mean  temperature  of  the  year  will  run  throughout  the  months  in  the 
Sitkan  region  about  as  follows — an  average,  for  the  time,  of  44°  7'  Fah. 
January,     29"  2'  May,       45°  5'  September,  51°  9' 

February,  36°  4'  June,     55°  3'  October,       49°  2' 

March,        37C  8'  July,      55°  6'  November,  36°  6' 

April,         44°  7'  August,  56°  4'  December,   30°  2' 


26  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

by  employes  of  the  great  English  company  ;  he  fired  upon  them, 
beat  them  off,  and  held  his  own  so  well  that  the  grateful  Baron  Von 
Wrangel,  who  then  was  governor-in-chief,  bestowed  the  name  of 
the  plucky  officer  upon  the  large,  rugged  island  which  overshadows 
the  scene  of  the  conflict,  and  which  it  bears  upon  every  chart  to- 
day.* 

Again,  in  1862,  the  solitude  of  Wrangel  was  broken  by  the 
sudden  eruption  of  over  two  thousand  British  Columbia  and  Cali- 
fornian  miners,  who  rushed  up  the  Stickeen  River  on  a  gold 
"excitement."  Quite  a  fleet  of  sail  and  steam-vessels  hung  about 
the  place  for  a  brief  season,  when  the  flurry  died  out,  and  the  rest- 
less gold-hunters  fled  in  search  of  other  diggings,  taking  all  their 
belongings  with  them. 

The  steamer  does  not  tarry  long  at  Wrangel  ;  a  few  packages 
fall  upon  the  shaky  wharf,  the  captain  never  leaves  the  bridge,  and 
in  obedience  to  his  tinkling  bell,  the  screw  scarce  has  paused  ere  it 
starts  anew,  and  the  vessel  soon  heads  right  about  and  west,  out  to 
the  open  swell  of  the  great  Pacific  ;  but  it  takes  six  or  seven  hours 
of  swift  travel  over  the  glassy  surface  of  Clarence  Strait  to  pass  the 
rough  heads  of  Kuprianov  Island  on  the  right,  flanked  by  the 
sombre,  densely  wooded  elevations  of  Prince  of  Wales  on  the  left. 
The  lower,  yet  sharper  spurs  of  the  straggling  Kou  forests  force 
our  course  here  directly  to  the  south.  It  is  said  that  more  than 
fifteen  hundred  islands,  big  and  little,  stud  this  archipelago  from 
Cape  Disappointment  to  Cross  Sound.  You  will  not  attempt  to 
count  them,  but  readily  prefer  to  believe  it  is  so.  From  the  great 
bulk  of  Vancouver's  Land  to  the  tiny  islet  just  peeping  above 
water,  they  are  all  covered  to  the  snow-line  from  the  sea-level  with 
an  olive-green  coniferous  forest — islands  right  ahead,  islands  on 
every  side,  islands  all  behind.  You  stand  on  deck  and  wonder 
where  the  egress  from  the  unruffled  inland  lake  is  to  be  as  you 
enter  it ;  no  possible  chance  to  go  ahead  much  faster,  is  your  con- 
stant thought,  which  keeps  following  every  sharp  turn  of  the  vessel 
as  she  rapidly  swings  right  about  here,  there,  and  everywhere,  in 
following  the  devious  path  of  this  weird  course  to  her  destination. 

Unless  the  fog  shuts  down  very  thick,  the  darkness  of  night 
does  not  impede  the  steamer's  steady  progress,  for  the  pilot  sees 

*  Zarenbo  Island— it  blocks  the  northern  end  of  Clarence  Strait,  and  af« 
fords  many  varied  vistas  of  rare  scenic  beauty. 


FEATURES    OF  THE   SITKAN   REGION.  27 

the  mountain  tops  loom  up  darker  against  the  blue-black  sky,  and 
with  unerring  certainty  he  guides  the  helm.  When  the  ship  is 
running  through  tide-rapids  in  the  night,  the  boiling  phosphores- 
cence of  the  foaming  waters,  as  they  rush  noisily  under  our  keel, 
gives  a  fresh  zest  to  the  novelty  of  the  cruise,  and  the  pilot's  cries 
of  command  ring  out  in  hoarse  echoes  over  the  surging  tumult 
below  ;  meanwhile,  the  passengers  anxiously  and  nervously  watch 
the  unquiet  turns  of  the  trembling  vessel — then  suddenly  the  helm 
is  put  up,  and  the  steamer  fairly  bounds  out  of  still  water  and  the 
leeward  of  Coronation  Island,  into  the  rhythmic  roll  of  the  vast  bil- 
lows of  the  Pacific,  which  toss  her  in  strange  contrast  to  the  even 
keel  that  has  characterized  our  long,  land-locked  sea-voyage  up  to 
this  moment.  The  wrinkled,  rugged  nose  of  Cape  Ommaney  looms 
right  ahead  in  the  north,  and  soon  we  are  well  abreast  of  the  moun- 
tainous front  to  the  west  coast  of  Baranov  Island,  running  swiftly 
into  Sitka  Sound.* 

Cape  Ommaney  is  a  very  remarkable  promontory  ;  it  is  a  steep, 
bluffy  cliff,  with  a  round,  high  rocky  islet,  lying  close  by  and  under 
it.  The  eastern  shore  of  that  cape  takes  a  very  sharp  northerly  di- 
rection, and  thus  makes  this  southern  extremity  of  Baranov  Island 
an  exceedingly  narrow  point  of  land.  An  unlucky  sailor,  Isaac 
Wooden,  fell  overboard  from  Vancouver's  ship  the  Discovery,  when 
abreast  of  it  and  homeward  bound,  Sunday,  August  24,  1794,  and 
—was  drowned,  after  having  safely  passed  through  all  the  perils 
of  that  most  remarkable  voyage,  extended  as  it  was  over  a  period 
of  four  consecutive  years'  absence  from  home.  The  rock  bears  the 
odd  name  "Wooden  "  in  consequence. 

The  location  of  New  Archangel,  or  Sitka  village,  is  now  con- 
ceded to  be  the  one  of  the  greatest  natural  beauty  and  scenic  effect 
that  can  be  found  in  all  Alaska.  The  story  of  its  occupation  by  the 
Russians  is  a  recitation  of  violent  deeds  and  unflinching  courage 
on  the  part  of  the  iron-willed  Baranov  and  his  obedient  servants : 
he  led  the  way  down  here  from  Kadiak  first,  of  all  white  men,  in 
1799,  after  hearing  the  preliminary  report  of  exploration  made  two 
years  previously  by  his  lieutenant,  Captain  James  Shields,  an  Eng- 
lish adventurer  and  shipbuilder,  who  entered  the  service  of  the 
Russian  Company  in  the  Okotsk.  Baranov,  though  small  in  stature, 

*  Sitka  port  is  on  the  west  coast  of  Baranov  Island ;  north  latitude  57 3 
02'  52";  west  longitude  135 D  17'  45". 


28  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

was  possessed  of  unusual  physical  endurance  and  muscular  strength. 
He  was  absolutely  fearless ;  he  never  allowed  any  obstacle,  no  mat- 
ter how  serious,  which  the  elements  or  savage  men  were  perpetually 
raising,  to  check  his  advances.  He  loved  to  travel  and  explore,  and 
possessed  rare  executive  or  governing  power  over  his  rude  and 
boisterous  followers.  He  soon  realized  that  the  establishment  of 
the  headquarters  of  the  company  at  St.  Paul,  Kadiak  Island,  was 
disadvantageous,  and  quickly  resolved  to  settle  himself  perma- 
nently in  the  Bay  of  Sitka,  or  Norfolk  Sound,  where  he  could  com- 
municate with  the  vessels  of  other  nations  and  purchase  supplies  of 
them.  Late  in  the  autumn  of  1799  he  sailed  to  this  port  in  the 
brig  Catherine,  accompanied  by  a  large  fleet  of  Aleutian  and  Ka- 
diak sea-otter  hunters  with  their  bidarkas,  or  skin-canoes.  So 
abundant  were  sea-otters  then,  now  so  rare,  that,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  these  native  hunters,  he  secured  over  fifteen  hundred  prime 
otter-skins  in  less  than  a  month  ;  then  satisfied  with  the  trading  re- 
sources of  the  locality,  Baranov  began  the  construction  of  a  stock- 
aded post,  the  site  selected  for  which  was  on  the  main  island,  about 
six  miles  to  the  northward  of  the  Sitkan  town-site  of  to-day.  During 
the  winter  of  1799-1800  he  and  his  whole  force  were  busily  engaged 
in  the  erection  of  substantial  log  houses  and  the  surrounding 
stockade  at  this  location.  In  the  spring,  two  American  fur-trading 
vessels  made  their  appearance  here,  and  the  owners  began  to  carry 
on  a  brisk  traffic  with  the  native  Sitkans,  right  under  the  eyes  of 
Baranov.  Knowing  that  this  must  be  stopped,  the  energetic  Rus- 
sian hastened  back  to  Kadiak  and  set  the  machinery  in  motion  to 
that  end.  But  his  absence  in  the  meantime  from  Sitka  was  im- 
proved upon  by  the  Koloshians,  who,  acting  in  preconcerted  plan, 
utterly  destroyed  the  post.  These  savages  on  a  certain  day,  when 
most  of  the  garrison  was  far  outside  of  the  stockade,  hunting  and 
fishing,  rushed  in,  several  thousand  of  them,  upon  a  few  armed 
men,  surrounded  the  block-house,  assailed  it  from  all  sides  at  once, 
and  soon  forced  an  entrance.  They  massacred  the  defenders  to  a 
man,  including  the  commander,  Medvaidniekov,  and  carried  off  more 
than  three  thousand  sea-otter  pelts  from  the  warehouses. 

During  this  wild  and  bloody  fight  an  English  ship  was  lying  at 
anchor  far  down  the  harbor,  some  ten  miles  from  the  scene  ;  three 
Russians  and  five  Aleutes  only,  out  of  the  hunting  parties  absent  at  the 
time  of  the  attack,  managed  to  secrete  themselves  in  the  woods,  and 
hide  until  they  could  gain  the  decks  and  protection  of  this  vessel, 


FEATURES   OF   THE   SITKAN   REGION.  29 

and  thus  acquaint  her  captain,  Barber,  of  the  outrage  ;  he  contrived 
to  entice  two  of  the  leading  Sitkan  chiefs  on  board  of  his  ship, 
plied  them  with  drink,  and  soon  had  them  securely  ironed,  and 
then,  having  quite  a  battery  of  guns,  he  was  able  to  make  his  own 
terms  for  their  release;  this  was  done  after  the  surrender  of  eighteen 
women  (captured  outside  of  the  stockade)  and  2,000  sea-otter  skins 
was  made  to  Barber,  who  at  once  sailed  for  Kadiak.  Here  the 
British  seaman  demanded  from  Baranov  the  salvage  of  50,000 
rubles  for  rescuing  his  men  and  women  and  property  ;  with  this 
demand  the  Kussian  could  not  or  would  not  comply ;  but,  after 
many  days  in  amicable  argument,  Captain  Barber  received  and 
accepted  10,000  rubles  in  full  settlement. 

While  the  lurid  light  of  the  burning  wreck  of  this  first  Sitkan  post 
was  flashing  over  the  sound,  and  the  Koloshes  were  howling  and 
dancing  around  it  in  their  fiendish  exultation,  nearly  two  hundred 
Aleutian  hunters  were  surprised  and  slaughtered  at  various  points  in 
the  vicinity,  and  a  party  of  over  one  hundred  of  these  simple  natives 
perished  almost  to  a  man,  on  the  same  day,  from  eating  poisonous 
mussels  which  they  detached  from  the  rocks  in  the  strait  that  sep- 
arates Baranov  Island  from  Chichagov;  that  canal  still  bears  the 
name  commemorative  of  this  dreadful  accident — it  is  called  "Po- 
geebshie  "*  or  "  Destruction  "  Strait 

The  enraged  Russian  manager  was  unable,  by  reason  of  a  compli- 
cated flood  of  troubles  with  his  subordinates  elsewhere,  to  revisit 
Sitka  until  the  spring  of  1804  ;  he  then  came  down  from  Kadiak  in 
a  squadron  consisting  of  three  small  sloops,  in  all  considerably  less 
than  100  tons  burden  ;  these  craft  he  had  built  and  fitted  out  in 
Prince  William  Sound  and  Yakootat  Bay  during  the  preceding 
winter.  He  had  with  him  forty  Russians  and  three  hundred  Aleu- 
tian sea-otter  hunters.  With  this  small  force  the  indomitable  man 
resolved  to  attack  and  subjugate  a  body  of  not  less  than  five  or  six 
thousand  fierce,  untamed  savages,  who  were  flushed  with  their  cruel 
successes,  and  eager  to  shed  more  blood.  He  was  unexpectedly 
strengthened  by  the  sudden  appearance  in  the  bay  of  the  Neva, 
400  tons,  which  had  sailed  from  London  to  Kadiak,  and  arrived 
just  after  Baranov's  departure,  but  Captain  Lissiansky,  learning 
of  the  object  of  his  trip,  determined  to  assist  in  rebuilding  the 

*  Not  "  Peril,"  as  it  is  translated  by  American  geographers  and  printed  on 
all  of  our  Alaskan  maps. 


30 


OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 


Sitkan  post  and  to  punish  the  Indians,  so  he  sailed  at  once  for  the 
place. 

Baranov  found  the  Sitkans  all  entrenched  behind  a  huge  stock- 
ade that  was  thrown  up  on  the  same  lofty  rocky  site  of  the  gov- 
ernor's castle  in  the  town  to-day.  They  reviled  him  and  defied 
him,  taunted  him  with  his  misfortunes,  and  easily  succeeded  in  ex- 
citing him  to  a  ferocious  attack,  in  which,  despite  his  demoniacal 
bravery,  he  was  beaten  off  at  first  with  the  loss  of  eleven  white 
sailors  and  hunters,  he  himself  badly  wounded,  together  with 
Lieutenants  Arbuzov  and  Povalishin.  The  darkness  of  a  violent  rain 


The  Castle  of  Baranov:    1809-1827. 
[Wholly  remodelled  and  rebuilt  by  his  successors.} 

and  sleet  storm,  with  night  close  at  hand,  caused  a  cessation,  for 
the  time,  of  further  hostilities,  but  in  the  morning  the  ship  and  the 
little  sloops  approached  the  beach  and  opened  upon  the  startled 
savages  a  hot  bombardment — the  splintering  of  their  log  bastions 
and  the  terrible,  unwonted  noise  accompanying,  was  too  much  for 
their  self-control,  and  though,  during  the  whole  day  they  refused  to 
fly,  yet  when  night  again  came  round  they  abandoned  their  fortifica- 
tion, and  retreated  silently  and  quickly  in  canoes  to  Chatham  Strait. 
The  Russians  then  took  possession  of  the  present  town-site  of 
Sitka.  The  rocky  eminence  which  the  savages  had  so  bravely  held 


FEATURES   OF   THE   SITKAN   REGION.  31 

was  cleared  of  their  rude  barricades,  and  the  foundations  were  laid 
then  to  the  castle  that  still  stands  so  conspicuous.  Around  this 
nucleus  the  Russian  settlement  soon  sprang  up  in  a  few  months, 
a  high  stockade  was  then  erected  between  the  village  and  the 
Indian  rancheries,  which  still  stands  in  part  to-day;  it  was  bastioned 
and  fortified  with  an  armament  of  three-pounder  brass  guns.  From 
this  time  on  the  supremacy  of  the  Russians  was  never  questioned 
by  the  Indians  of  the  Sitkan  archipelago.  The  reckless  daring  of 
Baranov,  evinced  by  his  personal  bearing  at  the  head  of  a  handful  of 
men  in  repeated  attacks  upon  the  castle-rock  encampment  was  exag- 
gerated by  the  savages  in  repetition  among  themselves,  until  his 
name  to  them  became  synonymous  with  a  charmed  life  and  supreme 
authority.  Baranov  himself  called  this  spot  the  final  headquarters 
of  the  Russian  American  Company,  and  henceforth  it  became  so, 
and  it  was  officially  known  as  New  Archangel  ;  but  the  tribal  name 
of  the  savages  who  lived  just  outside  the  stockade  fence  was 
"  Seet-kah,"  and  soon  the  present  designation  was  used  by  all  visit- 
ors and  Russians  alike,  brevity  and  euphony  making  it  "  Sitka." 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  beautiful  vistas  of  this  sound  influ- 
enced Baranov  in  the  slightest  when  he  selected  it  for  his  base  of 
operations  ;  but  there  must  have  been  mornings  and  evenings  when 
this  hardy  man  looked  at  them  with  some  responsive  pleasure,  for 
certainly  the  human  being  who  could  remain  insensible  to  their 
scenic  glories  must  be  one  without  a  drop  of  warm  blood  in  his  veins. 
Those  high-peaked  summits  of  the  Baranov  Mountains,  which  over- 
shadow the  town  on  the  east,  destroy,  in  a  great  measure,  the  effects 
of  sunrise  ;  but  the  transcendent  glow  of  sundown  colors  is  the  glow 
that  floods  the  crown  and  base  of  Mt.  Edgecumb  on  the  western 
horizon  of  the  bay,  and  repeats  its  radiance  in  tipping  with  golden 
gild  the  host  of  tiny  islets  which  stud  the  flashing  waters,  to  burn 
in  lingering  brightness  on  the  peaks  of  Verstova  and  her  sister  hills, 
when  all  else  is  in  darkness  or  its  shades  around  about. 

The  most  characteristic  and  expressive  single  view  of  Sitka  is  that 
one  afforded  from  Japan  Island,  which  is  close  by  and  right  oppo- 
site the  town  :  the  place  was  in  its  greatest  architectural  grandeur 
prior  to  the  departure  of  the  Russians,  in  1866.  The  lofty  peak 
which  rises  abruptly  back  of  the  village  is  Verstova,  to  the  bald 
summit  of  which  a  champagne  picnic  by  the  Russians  was  relig- 
iously made  every  summer.  Although  the  mountain  is  slightly 
under  three  thousand  feet  in  altitude  and  seemingly  right  at  hand, 


32  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

yet  the  journey  to  its  crest  is  one  that  taxes  the  best  physical  ener- 
gies of  strong  men.  The  forest  is  so  dense,  so  damp,  the  under- 
brush so  thick  and  so  tangled,  that  the  walk  requires  a  supreme 
bodily  effort,  if  the  trip  be  made  up  there  and  back  in  the  same  day. 

This  view  from  "  Yahponskie  "  gives  an  exceedingly  good  idea  of 
the  ultra-mountainous  character  of  Baranov  Island,  much  better 
than  any  power  of  verbal  description  can.  It  also  illustrates  the 
futility  of  land  travel  in  the  Sitkan  archipelago,  and  affords  ample 
reason  for  the  utter  absence  of  all  roads,  even  footpaths,  in  that  en- 
tire region ;  it  also  preserves  the  somewhat  imposing  front  which 
the  extensive  warehouses  and  official  quarters  of  the  Russian  Ameri- 
can Company  presented  in  1866,  before  their  transfer  to  us,  and 
the  ravages  of  fire  and  that  decay  which  has  since  well-nigh  de- 
stroyed them ;  it  recalls  the  shipyards  and  the  brass  and  iron  foun- 
dries and  machine-shops  that  have  not  even  a  vestige  of  their  ex- 
istence on  that  ground  to-day,  and  it  outlines  a  larger  Indian  village 
than  the  one  we  find  there  now. 

For  the  objects  of  self -protection  and  comfort  the  Russians 
built  large  apartment-houses  or  flats,  and  lived  in  them  at  Sitka. 
Several  of  these  dwellings  were  150  feet  in  length  by  50  to  80 
feet  in  depth,  three  stories  high,  with  huge  roof-attics.  They 
were  constructed  of  big  spruce  logs,  smoothly  trimmed  down 
to  12'  x  12'  timbers.  These  were  snugly  dovetailed  at  the  corners, 
and  the  expansive  roof  covered  with  sheet-iron.  The  exteriors 
were  painted  a  faint  lemon-yellow,  while  the  iron  roof  everywhere 
glistened  with  red-ochre.  The  windows  were  uniformly  small,  but 
fitted  very  neatly  in  tasteful  casemates,  and  usually  with  double 
sashes.  Within,  the  floors  were  laid  of  whipsawed  planks,  tongued 
and  grooved  by  hand  and  highly  polished.  The  inner  walls  were 
"  ceiled  "  up  on  all  sides  and  overhead  by  light  boards,  and  usually 
papered  showily.  The  heavy,  unique  Russian  furniture  was  moved 
in  upon  rugs  of  fur  and  tapestry,  and  then  these  people  bade  defi- 
ance to  the  elements,  no  matter  how  unruly,  and  led  therein  the 
most  enjoyable  of  physical  lives.  The  united  testimony  of  all  trav- 
ellers, who  were  many,  and  who  shared  the  hospitality  of  the  Rus- 
sians at  Sitka,  is  one  invariable  tribute  to  the  excellence  and  the 
comfort  of  their  indoor  living  at  New  Archangel. 

The  shipyard  of  Sitka  was  as  complete  as  any  similar  establish- 
ment in  the  Russian  Empire.  It  was  actively  employed  in  boat  and 
sail-vessel  building,  being  provided  with  all  sorts  of  workshops  and 


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FEATURES    OF   THE   SITKAN    REGION.  33 

materials.  Experiments  were  also  instituted  and  prosecuted,  to 
some  extent,  in  making  bricks,  so  much  prized  in  the  construction 
of  the  big  conventional  Russian  "stoves,"  the  turning  of  wooden- 
ware,  the  manufacture  of  woollen  stuffs  from  the  crude  material 
brought  up  from  California ;  but  the  great  cost  of  importing  skilled 
labor  from  far-distant  Russia,  and  the  relative  expense  of  maintain- 
ing it  here,  caused  the  financial  failure  of  all  these  undertakings. 
Much  money  was  also  wasted  in  attempting  to  make  iron  out  of  the 
different  grades  of  ore  found  in  many  sections  of  the  country.  The 
only  real  advantage  that  the  company  ever  reaped  from  the  work- 
shops at  Sitka  was  that  which  accrued  to  it  from  the  manufacture 
of  agricultural  implements,  which  it  sold  to  the  indolent  rancheros 
of  California  and  Mexico.  Thousands  of  the  primitive  ploughshares 
and  rude  hoes  and  rakes  used  in  those  countries  then  were  made 
here ;  also  axes,  hatchets,  and  knives  were  turned  out  by  industri- 
ous Muscovites  for  Alaskan  post-trading.  The  foundry  was  engaged 
most  of  the  time  in  making  the  large  iron  and  brazen  bells  which 
every  church  and  mission  from  Bering's  Straits  to  Mexico  called 
for.  Most  of  these  bells  are  still  in  use  or  existence,  and  give  am- 
ple evidence  of  skilful  workmanship,  and  of  this  early  development 
of  a  unique  industry  on  our  northern  coast. 

Naturally  enough  the  contrast  of  what  the  Russian  Sitka  was, 
with  what  the  American  Sitka  is  to-day,  is  a  striking  one  :  then  a 
force  of  six  or  eight  hundred  white  men,  with  wives  and  families, 
busily  engaged  as  above  sketched,  directed  by  a  retinue  of  fifty  or 
sixty  subalterns  of  the  governor,  lived  right  under  the  windows  of 
his  castle  and  within  the  stockade  ;  then  the  Greek-Catholic  Bishop 
of  all  Alaska  also  resided  there,  with  a  staff  of  fifteen  ordained 
priests  and  scores  of  deacons  all  around  him,  maintained  regardless 
of  expense,  at  this  time,  by  the  Imperial  Government  in  that  eccle- 
siastical pomp  so  peculiar  to  this  Oriental  Church — then  a  fleet  of 
twelve  to  fifteen  sailing-vessels,  from  ships  in  size  to  mere  sloops, 
with  two  ocean-going  steamers,  made  the  waters  of  the  bay  their 
regular  rendezvous,  their  hardy  crews  assisting  to  give  life  and  stir 
to  the  town,  shore,  and  streets — all  this  ordered  by  the  concentra- 
tion of  the  entire  trade  and  commerce  of  Alaska  at  New  Archangel. 

Now,  how  different !     As  you  step  ashore  you  scarcely  pause  to 

notice  the  handful  of  whites  who  have  assembled  on  the  wharf,  but 

at  once  the  impression  of  general  decay  is  made  upon  your  mind  ; 

the  houses,  mostly  the  original  Russian  buildings,  are  settling  here, 

3 


34  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

there,  and  everywhere,  rotting  on  their  foundations,  and  scarcely 
more  than  half  of  them  even  occupied,  while  the  combined  popula- 
tion of  some  three  hundred  souls  in  number  peers  at  you  from  every 
corner.  The  great  majority  of  these  people  are  the  half-breeds,  or 
"  Creoles,"  or  the  descendants  of  Indians  and  Russians ;  some  of 
them  are  tall  and  well-formed,  and  a  few  of  them  good-looking,  but 
they  are  nearly  all  short-statured,  abject,  and  apathetic.  Yet  in 
one  respect  Sitka  has  vastly  improved  under  American  supremacy 
— she  has  become  clean  ;  for  although  the  Russian  officers  kept  the 
immediate  surroundings  of  their  residences  in  good  order,  still 
they  never  looked  after  the  conduct  of  the  rest  of  the  town.  There 
were,  in  their  time,  no  defined  streets  or  sidewalks,  and  mud  and 
filth  were  knee-deep  and  most  noisome.  Our  military  authorities, 
however,  who  first  took  charge  immediately  after  the  transfer,  and 
who  are  proverbial  for  cleanliness  and  neatness  in  garrison  life, 
made  the  sanitary  reformation  of  Sitka  an  instant  and  imperative 
duty ;  the  slimy  walks  were  soon  planked,  the  muddy  streets  were 
gravelled  and  curbed,  the  main  street  especially  widened,  the  oldest 
houses  were  repainted,  and  where  dilapidated,  repaired,  and  things 
put  into  shape  most  thoroughly ;  they  also  graded  and  sauntered 
over  the  first  wagon-road  ever  opened  in  Alaska,  which  they  con- 
structed, from  the  steamers'  landing  under  the  castle,  back  border- 
ing the  bay  to  Indian  River,  over  a  mile  in  length. 

But  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  the  old  castle — still  the 
most  striking  artificial  feature  now  in  all  Alaska — will  never  wake 
to  the  echoes  of  that  proud  and  lavish  hospitality  which  once 
reigned  ^within  its  walls,  and  when  the  flashing  light  in  its  lofty 
cupola  carried  joy  out  over  the  dark  waters  of  the  sound  to  the 
hearts  of  inbound  mariners,  who  came  safely  into  anchor  by  its 
gleaming — the  elegant  breakfasts  and  farewell  dinners  given  to 
favored  guests,  where  the  glass,  the  plate,  viands,  wines  and  ap- 
pointments were  fit  for  regal  entertainment  itself — all  these  have 
vanished,  and  naught  but  the  uneven,  slowly  settling  floors,  warped 
doors,  and  general  mouldiness  of  the  present  hour  greets  the  in- 
quiring eye.  So  heavy  are  its  timbers,  and  so  faithfully  were  they 
keyed  together,  that  in  spite  of  neglect,  the  ravages  of  decay  and 
frequent  vandalism,  yet,  in  all  likelihood,  an  age  will  elapse  ere  the 
structure  is  removed  by  these  destroying  agencies  now  so  actively 
at  work  upon  it.  Moved  by  the  desire  to  preserve  the  salient 
features  of  this  historical  structure,  the  author  made,  during  one 


FEATURES   OF   THE   SITKAN   REGION.  35 

clear  June  day,  a  pre-Raphaelitic  drawing  of  it,*  as  his  vessel  swung 
at  anchor  under  its  shadows  ;  in  it  the  reader  will  observe  that  the 
rocky  eminence  which  it  crowns  is  covered  to  the  very  foundations 
and  to  the  promenade  cribbing  that  surrounds  them,  with  a  thick 
growth  of  alders,  stunted  spruces,  and  other  indigenous  vegeta- 
tion. That  walk  around  the  castle,  which  was  artificially  reared 
thereon,  gives  a  most  commanding  view  of  everything,  over  all 
objects  in  the  town  and  Indian  village,  and  sweeps  the  landscape 
and  the  sound.  Another  picture  from  the  promenade  walk  under 
the  flagstaff  is  also  given,  in  order  that  a  faint  effect  may  be  con- 
veyed to  the  reader  of  the  exceeding  beauty  of  the  island-studded 
Bay  of  Sitka.  Descending  and  standing  immediately  under  the 
castle  on  the  beach,  to  the  right  you  have  a  perfect  Alpine  scene 
as  you  look  east  along  the  pebbly  shore  to  the  living  green  flanks 
of  Mount  Verstova,  which  carry  your  gaze  up  quickly  over  rolling 
purplish  curtains  of  fog  to  the  snowy  crest  of  it,  and  other  lofty 
crests  ad  inftrritum,  over  far  beyond.  The  little  trading  stores  on 
the  left  in  this  view  hide  the  track  so  well  known  in  Sitka  as  the 
"  Governor's  Walk,"  for  this  is  the  only  direction  out  to  the  saw- 
mill in  the  middle  distance,  in  which  the  earth  lies  smooth  and 
dry  enough  in  all  this  archipelago  for  a  clean  mile-jaunt.  These 
still  blue  and  green  waters  are  alive  with  food-fishes,  while  the 
dense  coverts  on  the  mountains  harbor  grouse  and  venison  in 
lavish  supply  ;  the  oyster  and  the  lobster  you  have  not,  but  the 
clam  and  the  crab  are  here  in  overwhelming  abundance  and  excel- 
lence. "Ah! "  you  exclaim,  "if  it  were  not  for  this  eternal  rain, 
this  everlasting  damp  precipitation,  how  delightful  this  place  would 
be  to  live  in  !  " 

*  This  building,  as  it  stands  upon  its  foundations,  is  140  feet  in  length  by 
70  feet  in  width — two  stories  with  lofts,  capped  with  the  light-house  cupola  ; 
these  foundations  rest  upon  the  summit  of  the  rock,  60  feet  above  tide-water. 


CHAPTER  III. 

ABORIGINAL   LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS. 

The  White  Man  and  the  Indian  Trading. — The  Shrewdness  and  Avarice  of  the 
Savage. — Small  Value  of  the  entire  Land  Fur  Trade  of  Alaska. — The 
Futile  Effort  of  the  Greek  Catholic  Church  to  Influence  the  Sitkan  In- 
dians.— The  Reason  why  Missionary  Work  in  Alaska  has  been  and  is 
Impotent. — The  Difference  between  the  Fish-eating  Indian  of  Alaska  and 
the  Meat-eating  Savage  of  the  Plains. — Simply  One  of  Physique. — The 
Haidahs  the  Best  Indians  of  Alaska.  — Deep  Chests  and  Bandy  Legs  from 
Canoe-travel. — Living  in  Fixed  Settlements  because  Obliged  To. — Large 
"Rancheries"  or  Houses  Built  by  the  Haidahs. — Communistic  Families. 
— Great  Gamblers. — Indian  "  House -Raising  Bees." — Grotesque  Totem 
Posts. — Indian  Doctors  "Kill  or  Cure." — Dismal  Interior  of  an  Indian 
"  Rancherie." — The  Toilet  and  Dress  of  Alaskan  Siwashes. — The  Unwrit- 
ten Law  of  the  Indian  Village.— What  Constitutes  a  Chief.— The  Tribal 
Boundaries  and  their  Scrupulous  Regard. — Fish  the  Main  Support  of 
Sitkan  Indians. — The  Running  of  the  Salmon. — Indians  Eat  Everything. 
— Their  Salads  and  Sauces. — Their  Wooden  Dishes  and  Cups,  and  Spoons 
of  Horn. — The  Family  Chests. — The  Indian  Woman  a  Household  Drudge. 
— She  has  no  Washing  to  Do,  However. — Sitkan  Indians  not  Great 
Hunters. — They  are  Unrivalled  Canoe-builders. — Small-pox  and  Measles 
have  Reduced  the  Indians  of  the  Sitkan  Archipelago  to  a  Scanty  Number. 
— Abandoned  Settlements  of  these  Savages  Common. — The  Debauchery  of 
Rum  among  these  People. — The  White  Man  to  Blame  for  This. 

' '  Think  you  that  yon  church  steeple 

Will  e'er  work  a  change  in  these  wild  people  ?  " 

OUR  people  living  now  in  the  Sitkan  district  are  engaged  either  in 
general  trading  with  the  Indians,  in  prospecting  for  "mineral,"  or 
actively  mining ;  and,  also,  in  a  small  fashion,  in  canning  salmon 
and  rendering  dog-fish  and  herring  oil.  Perhaps  we  can  give  a  fair 
idea  of  the  traders  by  introducing  the  reader  to  one  of  them  and 
his  establishment  just  as  we  find  him  at  Sitka.  In  a  small 
frame  one-story  house,  not  usually  touched  by  paint,  the  trader 
shelters  a  general  assortment  of  notions  and  groceries,  but  princi- 


ABORIGINAL   LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS.  37 

pally  tobacco,  molasses,  blankets  of  all  sizes  and  colors,  cotton 
prints  and  cheap  rings,  beads,  looking-glasses,  etc.;  he  stands 
behind  a  rude  counter,  with  these  wares  displayed  to  best  advan- 
tage on  the  rough  shelves  at  his  back  ;  a  wood-burning  stove 
diffuses  a  genial  glow,  but  no  chairs  or  benches  are  convenient.  A 
"  Si  wash  "  *  and  his  squaw  deliberately  and  gravely  enter.  The 
Indian  slowly  looks  up  and  down  the  room,  and  then  proceeds  to 
price  every  object  within  his  vision,  no  matter  whether  he  has  the 
least  idea  of  purchasing  or  not ;  this  is  the  prelude  and  invariable 
habit  of  a  Sitkan  Indian,  and  it  arouses  an  immense  amount  of 
suppressed  profanity  on  the  part  of  the  outwardly  courteous  trader. 
But  our  savage  has  come  in  this  time  bent  upon  buying,  and  selling 
also  ;  his  female  partner  has  a  bundle  carefully  done  up  under  her 
blanket,  and  which  she  wholly  concealed  when  she  squatted  down 
on  her  haunches  the  moment  after  entering  the  door  ;  she  also 
has  a  number  of  small  silver  coins  in  her  mouth,  for,  funny  as  it  may 
seem,  this  worthy  pair  have  carefully  agreed  upon  what  they  shall 
spend  in  the  store  before  coming  in  ;  so  the  woman  has  taken  out 
from  the  leathern  purse  which  hangs  on  her  breast  and  under  her 
chemise,  the  exact  amount,  and,  returning  the  pouch  to  the  privacy 
of  her  bosom,  she  places  the  available  coin  in  her  mouth  for  safe 
keeping  ad  interim. 

Finally  the  Indian,  in  the  course  of  half  an  hour,  or  perhaps  a 
whole  half-day  in  preliminary  skirmishing,  boldly  reaches  down  for 
his  bundle  in  the  squaw's  charge  ;  then  having,  by  so  doing,  given 
the  trader  to  fully  understand  that  he  has  something  to  sell,  as  well 
as  desiring  to  buy,  he  reaches  out  for  the  groceries,  the  cloth,  the 
tobacco,  or  whatever  he  may  have  fully  decided  to  purchase;  a 
long  argument  at  once  ensues  as  to  the  bottom  cash  price,  and  in 
every  case  of  doubt  the  squaw  decides  ;  all  the  articles  are  done 
up  in  brown  paper  and  neatly  tied  with  attractive  parti-colored 
twine.  Then  the  dusky  woman  arises,  with  an  indescribably  vacant 
stare,  bends  over  the  counter  and  lets  the  jingling  silver  drop  upon 
it,  pausing  just  a  moment  until  the  tired  but  triumphant  trader 
counts  and  sweeps  it,  still  moist,  into  his  till 

Now  the  Si  wash,  having  bought,  proceeds  to  sell,  and  he  does 
it  in  his  own  peculiar  way.  He  unrolls  his  package  of  furs ;  he 


*  All  savages  are  called  by  this  name  up  here — the  sex  being  indicated 
by  "buck"  and  "squaw."     Children  are  called  "  pappooses." 


38  OUR   AKCTIC   PROVINCE. 

eloquently  discourses  as  he  strokes  each  pelt  out  on  the  counter,  in 
turn  praising  its  size  and  its  quality  ;  the  trader  in  the  meanwhile 
sharply  keeps  one  eye  on  the  savage  and  one  eye  on  the  furs,  and, 
after  the  story  of  their  capture  and  quality  has  been  told  over  the 
third  or  fourth  time,  he  asks,  "  How  much  ?  "  The  crafty  hunter 
promptly  demands  more  than  they  would  retail  at  in  London  ;  the 
trader  answers  with  great  emphasis  and  a  most  disgusted  head- 
shake,  "  no  ; "  he  then  offers  just  half  or  one-third  the  sum  named, 
whereupon  the  Indians,  affecting  great  contempt,  both  shout  out 
"  klaik  !  "  which  sounds  like  Poe's  "  Raven  " — roll  up  their  furs  and 
hustle  out  in  a  huff,  still  repeating,  in  sonorous  unison,  "  klaik, 
klaik  " — (no,  no).  Then  they  go  to  the  rival  trader's  establishment, 
and  to  all  of  them  in  turn,  even  if  there  are  half  a  dozen,  not 
leaving  one  of  them  unvisited  ;  they  finally  finish  the  rounds  in  the 
course  of  a  week  or  two,  and  then  quietly  march  back  to  that 
trader  who  offered  the  most,  and  laying  their  peltries  down  in 
perfect  silence  on  his  counter,  hold  out  a  grimy  hand  for  the  exact 
sum  he  had  previously  proffered. 

In  this  shrewd  and  aggravating  manner  does  the  simple  untu- 
tored savage  of  the  northwest  coast  deal  with  white  traders — are 
they  swindled,  do  you  think?  From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of 
any  transaction  you  may  have  with  an  Alaskan  Indian  you  will  be 
met  with  the  keenest  understanding  on  his  part  of  the  full  value  in 
dollars  and  cents  of  whatsoever  he  may  do  for  you  or  sell.  When, 
however,  the  Hudson  Bay  or  the  Russian  Company  held  an  ex- 
clusive franchise  in  this  district,  then  the  Indian  had  no  alterna- 
tive but  the  single  post-trader's  terms ;  and  then  the  white  man's 
profits  were  enormous.  But  now,  with  the  keen  rivalry  of  com- 
peting stores,  the  trader  barely  makes  a  living  anywhere  in  Alaska 
to-day,  while  the  Indian  gets  the  best  of  every  bargain — vastly 
better  compared  with  his  former  experience. 

The  fur  trade,  however,  in  the  whole  Sitkan  district  is  now  of 
small  commercial  importance  ;  thirty  or  forty  thousand  dollars  an- 
nually will  more  than  express  its  gross  value.  This  great  shrinkage 
is  due  to  the  practical  extermination  of  the  sea-otter  in  these 
waters,  while  the  brown  and  black  bears,  the  mink  and  marten,  the 
beaver  and  the  land-otter  skins  secured  in  this  archipelago  and  its 
mainland  coast  are  not  highly  valued  by  furriers,  inasmuch  as  the 
climate  here  is  never  cold  enough  to  give  them  that  depth  and 
gloss  of  fur  desired  and  so  characteristic  of  those  animals  which 


ABORIGINAL   LIFE   OF  THE   SITKANS. 


39 


are  taken,  away  back  in  the  interior,  where  the  temperature  ranges 
from  20°  to  40°  below  zero  for  months  at  a  time.  In  early  days, 
the  Sitkan  savages  acted  as  middlemen,  receiving  these  choice  pelt- 
ries from  the  back-country  Indians,  who  were  never  permitted  by 
the  coast  tribes  to  come  down  to  the  sea — and  then  trading  the 


The   Sitkan   Chimes. 

stock  anew  in  their  own  right  over  to  the  Russian  and  English 
posts,  they  reaped  a  large  advance.  Now,  however,  the  indepen- 
dent white  trader  penetrates  to  the  interior  himself,  and  the  Alas- 
kan Si  washes  mourn  the  loss  of  those  rich  commissions  which  once 
accrued  to  their  emolument  and  consequence.  The  irruption,  also, 
of  the  restless,  tireless,  wandering  miners  throughout  Alaska  and 


40  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

British  Columbia,  who,  prospecting  in  every  ravine  and  canon,  never 
let  an  opportunity  pass  to  trade  and  trap  for  good  furs,  has  also  con- 
tributed to  this  total  stagnation  of  the  business  in  the  Sitkan  region. 

The  finest  structure  in  Sitka  to-day  is  the  Greek  church,  which 
alone  did  not  pass  from  the  custody  of  its  original  owners  at  the 
time  of  the  transfer.  This  building  has  been  kept  in  repair,  so  that 
its  trim  and  unique  architecture  never  fails  to  arrest  the  visitor's 
attention  and  challenge  inspection,  especially  of  the  interior.  We 
find  the  service  of  the  church  rich  and  profuse  in  silverware,  can- 
delabra, ornately  framed  pictures — oil-paintings  of  the  saints — and 
rich  vestments ;  two  priests  officiate,  a  reader  chants  rapid  au- 
tomatism, and  a  choir  of  small  boys  respond  in  shrill  but  pleasing 
orisons ;  instrumental  music  is  banished  from  the  services  of  the 
Greek  Church,  and  so  are  pews,  chairs,  and  hassocks  ;  the  Creole 
congregation,  men,  women,  and  children,  stand  and  kneel  and  cross 
themselves,  erect  and  bowed,  for  hours  and  hours  at  a  time  during 
certain  festivals,  never  moving  a  step  from  their  positions.  The 
men  stand  on  the  right  side  of  the  vestibule,  facing  the  altar, 
while  the  women  all  stand  by  themselves,  on  the  left,  the  children 
at  option  as  they  enter.  No  one  looks  to  the  one  side  or  the  other, 
but  every  face  is  riveted  upon  the  priest,  who  says  little,  and  is 
busily  engaged  in  symbolic  worship. 

The  Indians  do  not  enter  here,  nor  did  they  ever  ;  for  them  the 
Russians  erected  a  small  chapel,  which  still  stands  on  the  site  of  its 
first  location  ;  it  is  built  against  the  inner  side  of  the  stockade, 
and,  like  the  old  Lutheran  church  lower  down  in  the  town,  it  is  fast 
going  to  ruin  ;  the  door  is  secured  by  one  of  those  remarkable 
Muscovitic  padlocks — it  is  eight  or  ten  inches  long,  five  or  six  wide, 
and  three  deep  ;  these  singular  locks  must  be  seen  to  be  appreciated 
in  all  of  their  clumsy  strength.  This  little  faded  place  of  savage 
worship  was  the  scene  in  1855  of  the  second  and  last  stand  ever 
made  by  the  Sitkan  Indians  in  revolt  against  the  Eussians.  Those 
savages,  brooding  over  some  petty  indignities  received  from  the 
whites,  became  suddenly  inflamed  with  passion,  and  a  swarm  of 
armed  warriors  from  the  adjacent  rancheries  rushed,  one  dusky 
evening,  upon  the  fortified  palisade  surrounding  the  village,  and 
began  to  cut  and  tear  it  down.  The  Russians  opened  their  brass 
batteries  of  grape  and  round-shot  upon  the  infuriated,  yelling 
natives  from  the  several  block-houses  which  commanded  the  stock- 
ade, but  the  Siwashes  returned  the  fire  fearlessly  with  their  smooth- 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS. 


41 


bore  muskets,  and  succeeded  in  getting  possession  of  this  chapel, 
behind  the  stout  logs  of  which  they  were  sheltered  and  able  to  do 
deadly  execution  with  their  rifles  in  picking  off  the  Russian  officers 
and  men,  as  they  hurried  to  and  from  the  bastions  and  through  the 
streets  of  the  town.  When,  however,  one  of  the  company's  vessels 
hauled  off  the  beach  opposite  the  Indian  village,  and  trained  her 
guns  upon  it  and  its  people,  the  savages  humbly  sued  for  mercy, 
and  have  remained  in  abasement  ever  since. 

Contemplating  this  Indian  church  at  Sitka,  which  has  stood  here 
for  nearly  three  quarters  of  a  century,  and  then  glancing  over  it 
and  into  the  savage  settlement  that  nestles  in  its  shadow,  it  is  im- 


Old  Indian  Chapel  at  Sitka. 
[Greek  Catholic  CAwrcA,  June  9,  1874.] 

possible  to  refrain  from  expressing  a  few  thoughts  which  arise  to 
my  mind  over  the  subject  of  the  Indian  in  regard  to  his  conversion 
to  the  faith  and  practices  of  our  higher  civilization.  Nearly  a 
whole  century  has  been  expended,  here,  of  unflagging  endeavor  to 
better  and  to  change  the  inherent  nature  of  these  Indians — its  full 
result  is  before  our  eyes.  Go  down  with  me  through  the  smoky, 
reeking,  filthy  rancheries  and  note  carefully  the  attitude  and  occu- 
pation of  these  savages,  and  contrast  your  observation  with  that  so 
vividly  recorded  of  them  by  Cook,  Vancouver,  Portlock,  and  Dixon, 
and  many  other  early  travellers,  and  tell  me  in  what  manner  have 
they  advanced  one  step  higher  than  when  first  seen  by  white  men 
full  a  hundred  years  ago.  You  cannot  escape  the  conclusion  with 


42  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

this  tangible  evidence  in  your  grasp,  that  in  attempting  to  civilize 
the  Alaskan  Indian  the  result  is  much  more  like  extermination,  or 
lingering,  deeper  degradation  to  him  than  that  which  you  so  ear- 
nestly desire.  The  cause  of  this  failure  of  the  missionary  and  the 
priest  is  easy  to  analyze  :  it  is  due  to  the  demoralizing  precept  and 
example  of  those  depraved  whites  who  always  appear  on  the  field 
of  the  Indian  mission,  sooner  or  later  ;  if  they  could  be  shut  out, 
and  the  savage  wholly  uninfluenced  by  their  vicious  lives,  then  the 
story  of  Alaskan  Indian  salvage  might  be  very  different.  Still,  the 
thought  will  always  come  unbidden  and  promptly — these  savages 
were  created  for  the  wild  surrounding  of  their  existence  ;  expressly 
for  it,  and  they  live  happily  in  it :  change  this  order  of  their  life, 
and  at  once  they  disappear,  as  do  the  indigenous  herbs  and  game 
before  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  the  domestication  of  animals. 

The  Indians  of  Alaska,  however,  will  never  call  upon  the  Gov- 
ernment for  food  and  reservations — there  is  a  great  abundance  on 
the  earth  and  in  the  waters  thereof  for  them  ;  living  as  they  do  all 
down  at  tide-water,  at  the  sole  source  of  their  subsistence,  they  are 
within  the  quick  reach  of  a  gunboat ;  the  overpowering  significance 
of  that  they  fully  understand  and  fear.  There  is  a  huge  wilderness 
here  for  them  which  the  white  man  is  not  at  all  likely  to  occupy, 
even  in  part,  for  generations  of  his  kind  to  come,  yet  unborn. 

Sitka  is  the  seat  of  that  Alaskan  civil  government*  which  Con- 
gress, after  much  deliberation,  ordered  in  1884  ;  but  the  governor 
lives  here  in  much  humbler  circumstances  than  did  his  Slavonian 
predecessors.  As  it  would  require  a  small  fortune  to  rehabilitate  the 
"  castle,"  the  present  chief -magistrate  resides  in  one  of  those  neatly 
built  houses  which  the  military  authorities  erected  shortly  after  they 
took  charge  in  1867-68  ;  it  is  not  at  all  commanding,  but  has  a 
pleasant  vista  from  its  windows  over  the  parade  ground,  and  the 
steamers'  landing. 

While  the  most  impressive  feature  of  the  Sitkan  archipelago  is 
unquestionably  that  of  the  awe-inspiring  solemnity  and  grand 

*  This  Act  wisely  does  not  establish  a  full-fledged  form  of  territorial  gov- 
ernment in  Alaska,  because  the  lack  of  a  suitable  population  to  maintain 
it  reputably  was  conclusively  shown  by  the  census  returns  of  1880  :  it  creates 
an  executive  and  a  judiciary  ;  it  extends  certain  laws  of  the  United  States 
relating  to  crimes,  customs,  and  mining,  over  Alaska,  and  provides  for  their 
enforcement.  The  land  laws  of  the  United  States  should  also  be  made  opera- 
tive in  Alaska,  they  are  expressly  omitted  in  the  present  act. 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS.  43 

beauty  of  its  strange  wilderness,  yet  the  most  interesting  single 
idea  is  the  Indian  and  the  life  he  leads  therein  ;  with  the  single  ex- 
ception of  the  substitution  of  a  woollen  blanket  and  a  cotton  shirt 
for  his  primitive  skin  garments,  he  is  living  here  to-day  just  as  he 
has  lived  away  back  to  the  time  when  his  legends  fail  to  recite,  and 
centuries  before  the  bold  voyages  of  Cook  and  Vancouver,  and  the 
savage  sea-otter  fleet  of  Baranov,  first  discovered  him  and  then 
made  his  existence  known  to  the  civilized  world.  True,  some  of 
the  young  fellows  who  have  labored  upon  vessels  and  in  the  fish- 
canneries  wear  an  every-day  workingman's  shirt  and  trousers,  and 
speak  a  few  words  of  English,  understanding  much  more,  yet  the 
primeval  simplicity  of  all  Indian  life  in  this  district  is  substantially 
preserved. 

These  savages  are  fish-eaters,  and  as  such  they  have  a  common 
bond  of  abrupt  contrast  in  physique  with  their  meat-eating  breth- 
ren of  the  Kocky  Mountains  and  the  great  plains ;  but  the  traits 
of  natural  disposition  are  the  same,  the  heart  and  impulse  of  the 
Haidah  or  the  Tongass,  are  the  heart  and  the  impulse  of  the  Sioux 
or  the  Cheyenne — the  former  moves  nowhere  except  squatted  in 
his  shapely  canoe,  the  other  always  bestrides  a  pony  or  mustang. 
This  wide  divergence  in  every-day  action  gives  alone  to  these  savages 
their  strongly  marked  bodily  separation  ;  the  fish-eater  is  stooping 
as  he  stands,  and  though  he  has  a  deep  chest  and  sinewy  arms,  yet 
his  lower  limbs  are  bowed,  sprung  at  the  knees,  and  imperfectly 
muscled ;  while  the  meat-eater  is  erect  and  symmetrical,  in  fine 
physical  outline  from  the  crown  of  his  head  to  his  heels. 

The  various  divisions  or  bands  of  the  Indian  population  of  the 
Sitkan  archipelago  and  mainland  *  differ  but  little  in  their  manner 
of  life  and  customs,  and  speak  closely  related  dialects  of  the  same 


*     I.   ChiUkahte:  Lynn  Canal  and  Glacier  Bay. 
II.  HooniaJis :  Chichagov  Island  and  islets. 

III.  Aw ks :  North  end  Admiralty  Island. 

IV.  Tahkoos:  Mainland,  Stephen's  Passage  and  Juneau  City. 
V.  Khootznahoos  :  South  end  Admiralty  Island. 

VI.  Sitkas  :  Baranov  Island. 

VII.  Kakho :  Kou  and  Kuprianov  Islands,  Prince  Frederick  Sound,  mainland 

coast 

VIII.  Stickeem :  Wrangel,  Zarenbo  and  Etholin  Islands,  Stickeen  River  mouth. 
IX.  Haidah  :  Prince  of  Wales  Island. 

X.   Tongass  :  Mainland,  Cape  Fox  to  Cape  Warde,  and  contiguous  islands. 


44  OUK   AECTIC   PROVINCE. 

language.  The  Haidahs  are  the  best  dispositioned  and  behaved. 
They  have  been  from  the  earliest  times  constantly  in  the  habit  of 
making  long  and  incessant  canoe  voyages  ;  and,  taking  into  account 
the  ease  with  which  all  parts  of  this  region  can  be  reached  on  water, 
it  is  rather  surprising  that  any  marked  difference  in  language  should 
be  found  at  all ;  still,  when  we  recall  the  knowledge  which  we  have 
of  their  fierce  inter-tribal  wars,  it  is  not  so  strange  ;  this  warfare, 
however,  was  of  the  same  barbarous  character  as  that  recognized  in 
all  other  American  savages — it  was  the  surprise  and  massacre  of 
helpless  parties,  never  sparing  old  women,  children  or  decrepit  men. 
These  internecine  family  wars  have  undoubtedly  been  the  sole  cause 
of  the  present  subdivisions  of  the  savages  as  we  note  them  to-day. 

In  drawing  the  picture,  faithfully,  of  any  one  Alaskan  Indian,  I 
may  say  candidly  that  in  so  doing  I  give  a  truthfully  defined  image 
of  them  all  throughout  the  archipelago.  Physically  the  several 
tribes  of  this  region  differ  to  some  extent,  but  not  near  so  much  as 
our  colored  people  do  among  themselves  ;  the  margin  of  distinction 
up  here  between  the  ten  or  eleven  clans,  which  ethnologists  enume- 
rate, is  so  slight  that  only  a  practised  eye  can  declare  them.  The 
Haidahs  possess  the  fairest  skins,  the  best  temper,  and  the  best 
physique  ;  while  the  ugly  Sitkans  and  Khootznahoos  are  the  darkest 
and  the  worst.  But  the  coarse  mouth,  the  width  and  prominence 
of  the  cheek  bones,  and  the  relatively  large  size  of  the  head  for  the 
body,  are  the  salient  main  departures  from  our  ideal  symmetry. 

The  body  is  also  long  and  large,  compared  with  the  legs, 
brought  about  by  centuries  of  constant  occupation  in  canoes  and 
the  consequent  infrequent  land  travel ;  their  hair  is  black  and 
coarse,  unkempt,  and  never  allowed,  by  the  males,  to  fall  below 
their  shoulders  except  in  the  case  of  their  "shamans,"  or  doctors. 
A  scattered,  straggling  mustache  and  beard  is  sometimes  allowed 
to  grow  upon  the  upper  lip  and  chin,  generally  in  the  case  of  the 
old  men  only,  who  finally  grow  weary  of  plucking  it  out  by  the 
roots,  which  in  youth  they  always  did  in  sheer  vanity. 

Once  in  a  while  a  face  is  turned  upon  you  from  a  canoe,  or  in  a 
rancherie,  which  arrests  your  attention,  and  commands  comment 
as  good-looking ;  these  instances  are,  however,  rare — very,  very 
rare.  I  think  the  Haidahs  give  more  evidence  in  average  physiog- 
nomy of  possessing  greater  intelligence  than  that  presented  in  the 
countenances  of  their  brethren  ;  while  I  deem  the  Sitkas  and 
Khootznahoos  to  be  the  most  insensible — if  they  are  as  bright  they 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS.  45 

conceal  the  fact  with  astonishing  success.  Again,  the  ferocity  and 
exceptionally  savage  expression  of  their  faces,  which  Captain  Cook 
and  Vancouver  saw  and  so  graphically  recorded,  has  faded  out  com- 
pletely ;  but  in  all  other  respects  they  agree  to-day  perfectly  with 
those  descriptions  of  these  early  voyagers.  In  those  days  firearms 
had  not  destroyed  their  faith  in  elaborate  armaments  of  spear  and 
bow  and  body  armor-shields  of  wood  and  leather,  so  that  they  then 
appeared  in  much  more  elaborate  costumes  and  varied  pigments 
than  they  do  now. 

Each  tribe  has  one  or  more  large  "rancheries,"  or  villages,  in 
which  it  lives,  and  which  are  always  located  at  the  level  of  the  sea, 
just  above  tide  and  surf,  at  river-mouths,  or  on  sheltered  bays  of 
the  islands,  or  the  mainland  ;  these  rancheries,  or  houses,  are  built 
of  solid,  heavy  timbers  in  the  permanent  villages,  or  thrown  loosely 
together  of  lighter  material  in  their  temporary  or  camping  stations. 
The  general  type  of  construction  is  the  same  throughout  the  archi- 
pelago, the  most  substantial  houses  being  those  of  the  Haidahs, 
who  give  more  care  to  the  accurate  fitting  together  and  ornamen- 
tation of  their  edifices  than  is  shown  elsewhere.  They  certainly 
show  a  greater  constructive  facility  and  mechanical  dexterity,  not 
only  in  the  better  style  of  house-building  but  in  the  greater  num- 
ber of,  greater  size  of,  and  excessively  elaborate  carved  totem  posts. 
These  peculiar  adjuncts  to  Alaskan  Indian  architecture  are  small 
and  shabby  everywhere  else  when  compared  with  the  Prince  of 
Wales  exhibition. 

All  permanent  villages  are  generally  situated  with  regard  to  one 
great  idea — easy  access  to  halibut-fishing  banks  and  such  coast  fish- 
eries, which  occupy  the  greater  proportion  of  the  natives'  time  in 
going  to  and  coming  from  them  when  not  actually  engaged  in  fishing 
upon  these  chosen  grounds  ;  therefore  it  happens  that,  occasionally, 
a  village  will  be  located  on  a  rocky  coast,  bleak  and  exposed,  though 
carefully  placed  at  the  same  time  so  as  to  permit  of  the  safe  landing 
of  canoes  in  rough  water.  These  houses  always  face  seaward,  and 
stand  upon  some  flat  of  soil,  elevated  a  few  feet  above  the  high-tide 
mark,  where  below  there  is  usually  a  sandy  or  gravelly  beach  upon 
which  the  fleet  of  canoes  is  drawn  out,  or  launched  from,  as  the 
owners  come  and  go  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night.  The  houses 
are  arranged  side  by  side,  either  in  close  contact,  or  else  a  space  of 
greater  or  less  width  between.  A  promenade  or  track  is  always  left 
between  the  fronts  of  the  houses  and  the  edge  of  the  bank,  from 


46 


OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 


ten  to  thirty  feet  in  width ;  it  constitutes  a  street,  and  in  which 
the  carved  posts  and  temporary  fish-drying  frames,  etc.,  are  usually 
planted.  Also  those  canoes  that  are  not  in  daily  use,  or  will  not 
be  used  for  some  time,  are  invariably  hauled  up  on  this  street,  and 
carefully  covered  by  rush-mats  or  spruce-boughs,  so  as  to  protect 
them  from  the  weather,  by  which  they  might  be  warped  or  cracked. 
The  rancheries  are  themselves  never  painted  by  their  rude  archi- 
tects and  builders  ;  they,  however,  soon  assume  a  uniform,  incon- 
spicuous, gray  color,  and  become  yellowish-green  in  spots,  or  Over- 


A Haidah  Rancherie. 

grown  with  moss  and  weeds  owing  to  the  dampness  of  the  climate. 
If  it  were  not  for  the  cloud  of  bluish  smoke  that  hovers  over  these 
villages  in  calm  weather,  they  would  never  be  noticed  from  any  con- 
siderable distance. 

In  localities  where  the  encroachment  of  mountain  and  water 
make  the  village  area  very  scant,  two  rows  of  houses  are  occasion- 
ally formed,  but  in  no  instance  whatever  is  any  evidence  given  in 
these  Koloshian  settlements  of  special  arrangement  of  dwellings, 
or  of  any  set  position  for  the  house  of  the  chief  man  of  the  village  : 
he  may  live  either  in  the  centre  or  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  row. 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE    OF   THE    SITKANS.  47 

Each  house  usually  shelters  several  families,  in  one  sense  of  the 
term  ;  these  are  related  to  each  other  and  under  the  tacitly  ac- 
knowledged control  of  some  elder,  to  whom  the  building  is  reputed 
to  belong,  and  who  is  a  person  of  greater  or  less  importance  in  the 
tribe  or  village  according  to  the  amount  of  his  property  or  cunning 
of  his  intellect. 

Before  some  of  these  Siwash  mansions  a  rude  porch  or  platform 
is  erected,  upon  which,  in  fair  weather,  a  miscellaneous  group  of 
natives  will  squat  in  assembly,  conversing,  if  squaws,  or  gambling,  if 
men.  The  houses  themselves  are  usually  square  upon  their  founda- 
tions, and  vary  much  in  size,  some  of  them  being  a  hundred  feet 
square,  while  most  of  them  are  between  fifty  and  sixty  feet,  the 
smaller  rancheries  being  less  than  twenty.  The  gable  end,  and  the 
entrance  right  under  its  plumb,  always  faces  the  street  and  beach- 
view  ;  the  roof  slopes  down  at  a  low  pitch  or  angle  on  each  side, 
with  a  projecting  shelter  erected  right  over  the  hole  left  in  the  roof- 
centre,  intended  for  the  escape  of  smoke — no  chimneys  were  ever 
built.  This  shelter,  or  shutter,  is  movable,  and  is  shifted  by  the 
Indian  just  as  the  wind  and  rain  may  drive  ;  the  floor  is  oblong  or 
nearly  square,  and,  in  the  older  and  better  constructed  examples,  is 
partly  sunk  in  the  earth,  i.e.,  the  ground  has  been  excavated  to  a 
depth  of  six  or  eight  feet  in  a  square  area,  directly  in  the  centre, 
with  one  or  two  large  earthen  steps  or  terraces  left  running  around 
the  sides  of  the  cellar.  A  small  square  of  bare  dirt  is  left  in  the 
exact  centre,  again,  of  this  hole,  while  the  rest  of  the  floor  is  cov- 
ered with  split  planks  of  cedar ;  the  earthen  steps  which  environ 
the  lower  floor  are  in  turn  faced  and  covered  with  cedar-slabs,  and 
these  serve  not  only  for  sleeping  and  lounging  places,  but  also  for 
the  stowage,  in  part,  of  all  sorts  of  boxes  and  packages  of  property 
and  food  belonging  to  the  family  ;  the  balance  of  these  treasures 
usually  hangs  suspended,  in  all  manner  of  ingenious  contrivances, 
from  the  heavy  beams  and  roof-poles  overhead.  The  rancheries 
which  are  built  to-day  by  Alaskan  Indians  nearly  all  stand  on  the 
surface  of  the  ground  without  any  excavation — a  decided  degen- 
eracy. 

The  pattern  of  the  Koloshian  house  is  maintained  with  little 
variation  throughout  the  archipelago,  and  has  been  handed  down 
from  remote  antiquity.  When,  after  extended  confabulation,  a 
number  of  Indians  agree  to  build  a  house,  several  months  are 
passed  first  in  the  forest  by  them,  where  they  are  engaged  in  fell- 


48  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

ing  the  trees  and  dressing  the  timbers  necessary  ;  when  these  logs 
and  planks  are  finally  hewn  into  shape  (everything  in  this  line  is 
done  with  axes  and  the  little  adze-like  hatchets  so  often  described), 
they  are  tumbled  into  the  water  and  towed  around  to  the  contem- 
plated site  of  the  new  edifice.  The  great  size  of  the  beams  and 
planks  used  in  a  big  Indian  rancherie  make  it  imperative  that  a 
large  number  of  hands  co-operate  in  the  work.  The  erection, 
therefore,  of  such  a  structure  in  all  its  stages,  the  cutting  and  hew- 
ing in  the  woods,  the  launching  and  towing  of  the  timbers  to  the 
foundations,  and  their  subsequent  elevation  and  fitting,  forms  the 
occasion  of  a  regular  gathering,  or  "bee,"  that  generally  calls  in 
whole  detachments  from  neighboring  villages,  which  is  always  the 


Section  Showing  Arrangement  of  Interior  of  a  Rancherie. 

precursor  to  a  grand  "  potlatch,"  or  giving  away  of  the  portable 
property  of  the  savage  for  whom  the  labor  is  undertaken. 

Some  of  the  larger  houses  have  required  the  repeated  assem- 
bling of  a  whole  tribe,  and  the  lapse  of  two  or  three  years  of  time 
ere  completion  in  all  details,  because  the  Siwash  for  whom  the  work 
has  been  done  has  regularly  exhausted  his  available  resources  on 
each  occasion,  and  has  needed  this  interval,  longer  or  shorter  as  it 
may  have  been,  in  which  to  accumulate  a  fresh  stock  of  suitable 
property,  especially  blankets,  with  which  to  reward  a  renewed  and 
continued  effort.  Dancing  and  gambling  relieve  the  monotony  of 
the  labor,  which,  however,  seldom  ever  is  suffered  to  occupy  more 
than  two  or  three  hours  of  each  day,  and  is  conducted  in  a  perfect 
babel  of  guttural  talk  and  noise,  and  the  exultant  shouting  of  the 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS.  49 

entire  combination  of  men,  women,  and  children,  as  the  great 
beams  are  placed  in  position.* 

In  the  construction  of  these  dwellings  the  savage  uses  no  iron 
or  wooden  spikes,  he  "  mortices  "  and  "tenons  "  rudely  but  solidly 
everything  that  requires  binding  firmly  ;  in  the  lighter  and  tempo- 
rary summer  rancheries  much  use  is  made  of  cedar-root  and  bark- 
rope  lashings  to  the  same  end.  Within  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty 
years  the  common  use  of  small  windows  has  been  employed,  the 
glazed  sashes  being  purchased  from  the  whites  either  at  Victoria  or 
else  brought  up  to  order  by  the  traders  ;  these  are  inserted  in  the 
most  irregular  manner,  usually  on  the  sides  under  the  eaves. 

The  oddly-carved  totem  posts,  which  appear  in  every  village, 
sometimes  like  a  forest  of  dead  trees  at  distant  sight,  are,  broadly 
speaking,  divisible  into  two  classes  :  that  is  to  say,  the  clan  or 
family  pillars,  and  those  erected  as  memorials  of  the  dead.  There 
has  been  too  much  written  in  regard  to  these  grotesque  features 
seeking  to  endow  them  with  idolatry,  superstitions,  and  other 
fancies  of  the  savage  mind.  Nothing  of  the  kind,  in  my  opinion, 
belongs  to  the  subject ;  the  image  posts  of  the  totem  order  are 
generally  from  30  to  50  feet  in  height,  with  a  diameter  of  3  to  5 
feet  at  the  base,  tapering  slightly  upward.  They  are  often  hol- 
lowed at  the  back,  after  the  fashion  of  a  trough,  so  that  they  can  be 
the  easier  handled  and  put  into  position.  Those  grotesque  figures 
which  cover  these  posts  from  top  to  bottom,  closely  grouped  to- 
gether, have  little  or  no  serious  significance  whatever  :  they  always 
display  the  totem  of  the  owner,  and  a  very  marked  similarity  runs 
through  the  carvings  of  this  character  in  each  village,  though  they 
have  a  wide  range  of  variation  when  one  settlement  is  contrasted 
with  another.  I  am  unable  to  give  any  definite  explanation,  that  is 
worthy  of  attention,  of  the  real  meaning  of  all  those  strange  designs 
—perhaps,  in  truth,  there  is  none;  they  are  simply  ornamental 
doorways. 

The  smaller  memorial  posts  are  also  generally  standing  in  the 

*  The  exact  measurements  of  such  a  rancherie,  and  of  which  the  author 
submits  a  careful  drawing,  were :  Breadth  in  front  of  house,  54  feet  6  inches ; 
depth  from  front  to  back,  "in  the  clear,"  47  feet 8  inches  ;  height  of  ridge  of 
roof,  16  feet  6  inches ;  height  of  eaves,  10  feet  8  inches  ;  girth  of  main  ver- 
tical posts  and  horizontal  beams,  9  feet  9  inches  ;  width  of  outer  upright 
beams,  2  feet  6  inches,  thickness,  about  6  inches  ;  width  of  carved  totem  post 
in  front  of  house,  3  feet  10  inches,  height,  (?)  50  feet. 
4 


50  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

village,  upon  the  narrow  border  of  land  running  between  the  houses 
and  the  beach,  but  in  no  determinate  relation  to  the  building^. 
When  a  man  falls  before  prostrating  illness,  his  relatives  call  in  the 
medicine  man,  or  "  shaman,"  and  also  invite  the  friends  of  the  fam- 
ily to  the  house  of  sickness,  usually  providing  them  with  tobacco  ; 
soon  the  rancherie  is  full  of  curious  friends,  of  smoke,  and  of  the 
abominable  noise  of  the  shaman.  If  the  patient  dies,  the  body  is 
not  burned  now,  as  it  used  to  be  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  whites, 
but  is  bent  double  into  a  sitting  posture,  and  enclosed  in  a  square 
cedar  box,  which  has  been  made  for  this  purpose  by  the  joint  labor 
of  the  assembled  Indians,  or  else  they  have  subscribed  and  pur- 
chased it  from  some  one  of  their  number.  This  coffin  is  exactly 
the  same  in  shape  and  size  as  the  box  commonly  used  by  every 
Siwash  family  here  for  the  reception  of  spare  food,  oil,  etc.,  so  that 
there  never  is  any  delay  or  difficulty  in  getting  one. 

If  the  dead  Koloshian  is  a  man  of  only  ordinary  calibre,  his 
body  is  put,  while  still  warm,  into  the  wooden  crib,  and  this  is  at 
once  carried  out  and  stored  away  in  a  little  tomb-house,  which  is 
generally  a  small  covered  shed  right  behind  the  rancherie,  or  in  the 
immediate  vicinity.  This  vault  is  also  made  by  the  united  labor  of 
the  men  of  the  village,  and  paid  for  in  the  same  manner  as  that  indi- 
cated for  the  purchase  of  the  coffin-box.  In  it  may  be  placed  but 
a  single  body,  then  again  it  will  contain  several — all  relatives,  .how- 
ever. But  should  the  deceased  savage  have  been  one  of  great  im- 
portance, then  the  whole  rancherie  itself  is  given  up  to  the  reception 
of  the  body,  which  is  boxed  and  placed  therein,  sitting  thus,  in  state, 
perhaps  for  a  year  or  more,  no  one  removing  any  of  the  things,  the 
members  of  the  family  all  vacating  the  premises,  and  seeking  quar- 
ters elsewhere  in  the  village.  Now  it  becomes  necessary,  sooner  or 
later,  to  erect  a  carved  post  to  the  memory  of  this  man.  Again  the 
Indians  collect  for  the  purpose,  and  are  repaid  by  a  distribution  of 
property  made  by  the  deceased  man's  brother,  or  that  relative  to 
whom  the  estate  has  come  down,  in  order  of  descent.  This 
inheriting  relative  takes  possession  the  moment  the  body  of  the 
dead  has  been  enclosed  in  its  cedar  casket,  and  not  before.* 

The  doorway  to  the  Alaskan  house  is  usually  a  circular  hole 

*  Whole  volumes  have  been  written  upon  this  subject  of  the  totem  and 
consanguinity  among  these  savages  of  the  northwest  coast.  Further  descrip- 
tion or  discussion,  in  this  instance,  is  superfluous. 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OP   THE   SITKANS.  51 

through  which  the  Indian  must  stoop  to  half  his  stature  when  he 
enters.  It  is  generally  from  four  to  six  feet  from  the  ground,  and 
is  gained  by  a  rude  flight  of  stairs  or  a  notched  log  leading  up  to 
it  on  the  outside,  and  in  the  same  manner  down  to  the  floor  on  the 
inside.  As  you  enter,  the  whole  interior  seems  dark — everything, 
at  first,  indistinct,  and  the  only  light  being  directly  above  and 
below  the  smoke-hole  in  the  roof,  for  a  blanket  is  dropped  as  a 
portiere  over  the  doorway  the  moment  you  pass  within.  In  the 
centre  of  this  gloomy  interior,  directly  beneath  a  hole  in  the  roof, 
is  the  fireplace,  upon  which  logs  are  smouldering  or  fitfully  blazing  ; 
kettles  of  stewing  fish,  and  oil  and  berries  simmering  under  the 
care  of  some  squatty,  grimy  squaws  who  surround  it.  If  this  house 
be  a  large  one  you  will  find  within  fifty  or  sixty  Koloshes  of  both 
sexes,  all  ages,  and  in  all  conceivable  attitudes,  as  they  stand,  sit, 
or  lounge  or  sleep  around  the  four  sides  of  the  deep  terraced  room, 
some  cleaning  firearms,  others  repairing  fishing-tackle,  or  carving 
in  wood  or  slate  ;  while  others  are  idly  staring  into  the  fire,  or, 
wrapped  in  their  blankets,  are  sleeping  with  reiterated  snoring. 
Against  the  walls,  pendent  from  the  black,  sooty  beams  overhead, 
hang  an  infinite  variety  of  personal  effects  peculiar  to  this  life,  such 
as  fish-spears  and  hooks,  canoe  paddles,  bundles  of  furs,  cedar-bark 
lines  and  ropes,  immense  wooden  skewers  of  dried  salmon  and  hali- 
but, while  the  boxes  which  contain  the  real  wealth  of  such  people 
—blankets,*  tobacco,  and  cloths  of  cotton,  and  handkerchiefs  of 
silk,  are  stowed  away  in  the  corners. 

But  odors  that  the  civilized  nose  never  before  scented  now  rise 
thick  and  fast  as  you  contemplate  this  interior,  and  the  essential  oils 
of  rancid  oolachan  grease,  decaying  fish,  and  others,  in  rotation  swift, 


*  The  blanket  is  now,  however,  the  general  recognized  currency  among 
these  people.  It  is  the  substitute  among  them  of  that  unit  of  value,  the 
beaver  skin,  which  has  been  for  so  long  the  currency  of  the  great  Hudson  Bay 
region.  The  blankets  used  in  Alaskan  trade  are  of  all  colors — green,  blue, 
yellow,  red,  and  white— of  the  very  best  woollen  texture,  none  others  will  do. 
They  are  rated  in  value  by  the  "points"  or  line-marks  woven  into  the  edge, 
the  best  and  largest  being  a  "  four-point,"  the  smallest  and  poorest  being  "  one- 
point."  The  unit  of  value  is  a  single  "  two  and  a  half  point"  blanket,  worth 
a  little  over  $1.50.  Everything  is  referred  to  this  unit,  even  a  large  four- 
point  blanket  is  said  to  be  worth  so  many  blankets.  Traders  not  infrequently 
buy  in  blankets,  taking  them,  when  in  good  order,  from  the  Indians  as 
money,  and  selling  them  out  again  as  trade  demands. 


52  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

of  many  shades  of  startling  disgust,  cause  you  to  speedily  turn  and 
gladly  seek,  with  no  delay,  the  outer  stairway,  even  though  a  tem- 
pest of  rain  and  wind  is  beating  down  (with  that  fury  which  seems 
to  be  most  pronounced  in  violence  here  as  compared  with  the  rest 
of  the  world,  when  it  does  storm  in  earnest).  Here  again  it  is  not 
pleasant  for  us  to  tarry  even  in  fair  weather,  inasmuch  as  the  Ko- 
loshian  has  no  idea  of  sewerage  or  of  its  need,  the  refuse — slops, 
bones,  shells,  fish-debris,  and  a  medley  of  similar  and  worse  nui- 
sances are  lazily  thrown  out  of  this  doorway  on  either  side  and 
straight  ahead,  as  they  are  from  the  entrance  to  every  other 
rancherie  in  the  village.  A  merciful  growth  of  rank  grass  and 
mighty  weeds  charitably  covers  and  assimilates  much,  but  yet  the 
atmosphere  hangs  heavy  around  our  heads — we  move  away. 

On  ordinary  occasions  a  head-covering  is  usually  dispensed  with, 
unless  it  be  some  old  hat  of  our  style.  The  squaws,  however,  fashion 
and  often  wear  grass  hats,  made  as  they  weave  their  fine  basket- 
ware;  they  have  the  form  of  an  obtuse  cone,  generally  ornamented 
by  conventional  designs  painted  in  black,  blue,  or  red.  The  feet 
are  almost  invariably  bare — too  wet  for  moccasins.  Painting  the 
face  is  a  very  common  practice  ;  vermilion  is  the  favorite  pigment, 
and  is  usually  rubbed  in  without  the  least  regard  to  pattern  or 
effect ;  blue  and  black  colors  also  are  used  in  the  same  manner,  but 
I  have  never  seen  their  limbs  or  bodies  so  treated,  which  is  the 
common  method  of  meat-eating  savages,  who  always  paint  them- 
selves with  great  care  as  to  exact  and  symmetrical  design.  Here 
the  faces  of  Alaskan  Siwashes  are  thus  daubed  for  the  dance  or  for 
mourning ;  especially  hideous  are  the  mixtures  of  spruce-gum 
grease,  and  charcoal  which  you  observe  smeared  over  the  counte- 
nances of  the  Sitkans,  who  do  so  chiefly  to  prevent  unpleasant  effects 
of  the  sun  when  it  happens  to  shine  out  upon  them  as  they  are  fish- 
ing or  paddling  extended  journeys  in  their  canoes,  and  who  also 
give  you  an  ugly  reminder  of  their  being  in  mourning  by  the  same 
application. 

Bracelets  are  beaten-out  pieces  of  copper  or  brass  wire  and 
silver  coins,  highly  polished,  and  worn  chiefly  by  the  women,  who 
often  carry  several  upon  each  arm.  When  worn  upon  the  ankles 
they  are  forged  in  round  sections,  while  for  the  wrist  they  are  made 
quite  flat.  Tattooing  once  was  universal,  but  is  now  going  out  of 
style  ;  and,  until  quite  lately,  the  females  all  wore  labrets  in  the 
lower  lips — this  disgusting  distortion  is  also  being  abated.  Only 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS.  63 

among  the  very  old  women  can  this  monstrosity  now  be  found  in  its 
original  form.  Most  of  the  middle-aged  squaws  still  have  a  small 
aperture  in  the  lower  lip,  through  which  a  little  silver,  beaten  tube, 
of  the  size  of  a  quill,  is  thrust,  and  projects  from  the  face,  just 
above  the  chin,  about  a  quarter  of  an  inch.  The  younger  women 
have  not  even  this  remnant  of  a  most  atrocious  old  custom.  The 
ears  are  often  pierced,  and  tiny  shell  ornaments,  backed  with  thin 
sheet-silver  or  copper,  are  inserted  ;  and  also  the  septum  of  the 
nose  is  perforated,  of  both  sexes  very  generally,  for  the  insertion  of 
a  silver  ring,  or  a  pendant  of  haliotis  shell. 

Each  village  has  its  lex  non  scripta,  and  is  a  law  unto  itself  every- 
where within  the  confines  of  the  Alexander  archipelago  ;  or,  in  differ- 
ent words,  it  conducts  its  affairs  wholly  without  reference  to  any 
other  village  or  savages — it  is  the  largest  unit  in  the  Indian  system 
of  government.  Living  as  they  do  in  these  settlements,  where  they 
know  each  other  just  as  well  and  as  familiarly  as  we  know  the  indi- 
vidual members  of  our  own  private  home  circles,  no  matter  whether 
the  village  contain  a  thousand  souls  or  but  half  a  dozen — there  are 
no  strangers  in  it.  Every  little  daily  incident  of  each  other's  sim- 
ple life,  every  move  that  they  make,  what  they  capture  in  the  for- 
est or  hook  out  from  the  sea,  is  regularly  recounted  in  the  ranch- 
eries  over  night.  All  engaged  in  precisely  the  same  calling  of 
fishing  and  hunting,  naturally  there  is  no  room  among  them  for  the 
eager  rivalries  and  passionate  enterprises  which  our  living  stimu- 
lates and  sustains.  Therefore  the  routine  of  government  is  almost 
nothing  in  its  detail — no  laws  appear  to  be  necessary,  and  they  are 
not  acknowledged  ;  but  any  action  tending  to  the  injury  of  another, 
in  person  or  property,  lays  the  offender  open  to  reprisals  by  the  suf- 
ferer— usually  atoned  for — and  the  village  feud,  thus  aroused,  is 
soon  satisfied  by  a  payment  in  blankets,  or  other  valuable  property, 
to  a  full  settlement.  Injuries,  thefts  and  murder,  however,  which, 
inflicted  by  the  people  of  one  village  upon  another,  either  close  at 
hand  or  remote,  have  not  always  been  adjusted  in  this  amicable 
manner  ;  hence,  from  time  immemorial,  the  disputants  have  been 
at  war  with  each  other  in  this  region,  and  the  result  of  these  wars 
has  been  to  divide  them  into  the  existing  clans  as  we  find  them 
now.  Their  internecine  warfare  was  carried  on  in  true  savage  style. 
If  the  cause  was  one  which  concerned  the  whole  village,  then  the 
chief  of  that  settlement  could  implicitly  count  upon  the  services  of 
every  male  Indian  able  to  bear  arms  ;  and  although  these  savages 


54  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

are  fearless  ancl  brave,  yet  they  know  no  open,  fair  fight — taught  to 
get  his  living  by  stratagem  when  fishing  or  hunting,  so  the  Kolosh 
advances  in  capturing  his  human  enemies,  just  as  all  other  Indians 
have  done  and  do. 

Each  village  has  a  well-recognized  head  man,  or  chief,  who,  though 
possessing  much  influence,  still  never  has  had,  and  does  not  now 
enjoy,  that  absolute  rule  which  is  attributed  to  such  Indians.  He 
is  really  a  presiding  elder  over  the  several  families  in  the  hamlet, 
and,  without  their  consent,  his  decisions  are  futile  or  carry  no 
weight.  He  has  no  power  to  compel  other  members  of  the  tribe 
to  work,  hunt,  or  fish  for  him,  and  if  he  builds  a  house,  or  a  canoe, 
he  has  to  hire  them  to  labor  by  making  the  customary  "potlatch," 
just  as  any  other  man  of  the  tribe  would  do — only  he  must  give  a 
little  more.  The  social  rules  which  exist  among  these  savages  show 
many  strange  features,  for  though  every  rancherie  has  its  freely- 
acknowledged  chief,  yet  they  are  divided  into  as  many  or  more 
families  than  there  are  houses,  each  one  of  which  has  its  own  regu- 
lations, and  a  subordinate  authority  of  its  own  governing  it,  and  it 
alone.* 

The  Sitkan  Indians  trouble  themselves  very  little  about  the  inte- 
rior country ;  but  the  coast  line,  and  especially  the  margins  of 
rivers  and  streams,  are  duly  divided  up  among  the  different  fami- 
lies. These  tracts  are  regarded  as  strictly  private  property,  just  as 
we  would  regard  them  if  fenced  in  as  farms  and  cattle  ranches — 
and  they  are  passed  from  one  generation  to  the  other  in  the  line  of 
savage  inheritance  ;  they  may  be  sold,  or  even  rented  by  one  family 
desiring  to  fish,  to  gather  berries,  to  cut  timber,  or  to  hunt  on  the 
domain  of  another.  So  settled  and  so  strict  are  these  ideas  of  pro- 
prietary and  vested  rights  in  the  soil,  that,  on  some  parts  of  the 
coast,  corner-stones  and  stakes  may  be  seen  to-day  set  up  there  to 
define  the  limits  of  such  properties  between  savages,  by  savages  ; 


*  There  are  naturally  in  every  clan  certain  individuals  of  hereditary  Indian 
wealth  and  a  long  pedigree,  who  speak  in  better  language,  who  have  a  fine 
physical  presence,  a  more  dignified  bearing,  and  the  self-possession  and  pride 
of  incarnate  egotism.  From  these  men  the  chiefs  are  selected,  and  although 
the  chieftainship  is  not  necessarily  hereditary,  yet  it  is  often  retained  in  this 
manner  for  many  generations  in  one  family.  The  covers  of  this  volume, 
however,  cannot  be  expanded  wide  enough  to  permit  the  further  discussion 
and  enumeration  of  a  thousand  and  one  singular  points  in  this  connection 
which  rise  in  the  author's  mind. 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS.  55 

and  furthermore,  woe  to  the  disreputable  trespassing  Siwash  who 
steps  over  these  boundaries  and  appropriates  anything  of  value, 
such,  for  instance,  as  a  stranded  whale,  shark,  seal,  or  otter — ber- 
ries, wreckage,  or  shell-fish. 

The  woods  and  the  waters  are  teeming  with  animal  life ;  the  lofty 
semi-naked  peaks  harbor  mountain  goats  in  large  flocks ;  the  beau- 
tiful grouse  of  Sabine  hides  in  the  forest  thickets  ;  the  land  otter 
and  the  mule-eared  deer  haunt  the  countless  ravines,  valleys,  and 
rivulet  bottoms ;  salmon  in  fabulous  numbers  run  up  those  streams, 
and  big,  brown  and  glossy  black  bears  come  down  to  fatten  upon 
these  spawning  fish.  But  the  Sitkan  savage  is  indolent,  and,  though 
all  this  dietary  abundance  and  variety  is  before  him,  he  lives  quite 
exclusively  upon  halibut  and  salmon,  the  former  mostly  fresh  and 
the  latter  air-dried  and  smoked  in  the  soot  of  his  rancherie.  Hali- 
but he  finds  all  the  year  round  ;  salmon  briefly  run  only  at  widely 
separated  periods. 

The  halibut  fishery  is  the  one  systematic  regular  occupation  of  the 
natives.  These  fish  may  be  taken  in  all  waters  of  the  archipelago 
at  almost  any  season,  though  on  certain  banks,  well  known  to  the 
Indians,  they  are  more  numerous  at  times.  When  the  halibut  are 
most  active  and  abundant,  the  Koloshians  take  them  in  large  quan- 
tities, fishing  with  a  hook  and  line  from  their  canoes,  which  are  an- 
chored over  the  favored  spots  by  stones  attached  to  cedar-bark 
ropes  or  cables.  They  still  employ  their  own  primitive,  clumsy-look- 
ing hook  in  decided  preference  to  using  our  own  make.  When  the 
canoe  is  loaded  to  the  gunwale  by  an  alert  fisherman,  these  halibut 
are  brought  in  to  some  convenient  adjacent  point  on  the  shore, 
where  they  are  handed  over  to  the  women,  who  are  there  to  take 
care  of  them,  usually  living  in  a  temporary  rancherie.  They  squat 
around  the  pile,  rapidly  clean  the  fish,  removing  the  larger  bones, 
head,  fins,  and  tail,  and  cut  it  into  broad,  thin  flakes.  These  are 
then  hung  on  the  poles  of  a  wooden  frame  trellis,  where,  without 
salt,  and  by  the  wind  and  sun  alone,  sometimes  aided  by  a  slow  fire 
underneath  the  suspended  fish-meat,  the  flakes  are  sufficiently 
cured  and  dried ;  then  they  are  packed  away  in  those  characteristic 
cedar  boxes  for  future  use. 

A  group  of  old  and  young  squaws,  half-nude,  flecked  with  shining 
scales  and  splashed  with  blood,  as  they  always  are  when  at  work 
upon  a  fine  run  of  halibut  or  salmon — such  a  group  is  to  be  vividly 
remembered  ever  afterward,  if  you  see  it  even  but  once.  The  lit- 


56  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

tie  pappooses,  entirely  naked,  with  big  heads  and  bellies,  slender 
necks  and  legs,  are  running  hither  and  thither  in  infantile  glee  and 
sport,  always  with  a  mouthful  of  raw  ova  or  a  handful  of  stewed 
fish  from  the  kettle  near  by,  while  the  babies,  propped  up  in  their 
stiff-backed  lashings,  croon  and  sleep  away  the  time. 

There  are  no  rivers  of  any  size  flowing  on  the  islands  of  the  Sit- 
kan  archipelago  ;  but  there  are  rapid  rivulets  and  broad  brooks  in 
great  numbers.  Many  of  these  are  large  enough  to  be  known  as 
"  salmon  rivers."  The  first  run  of  those  attractive  fish  usually  takes 
place  up  some  of  the  longest  island-streams  and  the  mainland  rivers 
about  July  10th  to  20th.  A  month  later  a  larger  species  begins  to 
arrive  from  the  depths  of  the  ocean  outside,  and  this  run  sometimes 
lasts,  in  a  desultory  manner,  until  January.  These  salmon,  when 
they  first  appear,  are  fat  and  in  superb  condition  and  color ;  but  as 
they  leave  the  salt  water  and  take  up  their  persistent,  tireless  ascent 
of  fresh-water  channels  they  become  hook-jawed,  lean,  and  pale- 
fleshed.  They  ascend  very  small  streams  in  especially  great  num- 
bers when  these  rivulets  are  swollen  by  the  heavy  rains  of  October, 
and,  being  easily  caught  and  very  large,  they  constitute  the  chief 
harvest  of  the  Alaskan  Indian — his  meat  and  bread,  in  fact.  They 
are  either  speared  in  the  shallow  estuaries  or  trapped  in  brush  and 
split-stick  weirs,  which  are  planted  in  the  streams.  Everyone  of 
the  little  salmon  brooks  has  its  owner  in  the  Indian  law.  They  are 
the  private  property  of  the  several  families  or  subdivisions  of  the 
clans.  Those  people  always  come  out  of  their  permanent  village 
houses  during  the  fishing  period,  and  camp  upon  the  banks  of 
their  respective  water  claims. 

It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  itemize  all  the  species  of  food-fishes 
in  the  Alexander  archipelago,  for  anything  and  everything  that  is 
at  all  abundant  in  the  vicinity  of  an  Indian  rancherie  is  sure  to  be 
eaten  ;  trout,  herring,  flounders,  rock-cod,  and  the  rosy,  glittering 
sebastines  constitute  minor  details  of  the  savage  dietary.  Codfish 
are  taken  in  these  waters,  but  not  in  great  numbers,  nor  are  they 
especially  sought  for.  The  spawn  of  the  herring  *  is  collected  on 
spruce  boughs,  which  the  Indians  carefully  place  at  low- water  on 
the  spawning  grounds  ;  then,  when  taken  up,  it  is  smoke-dried  and 
stored  away. 

But  the  "loudest"  feast  of  these  savages  consists  of  a  box,  just 

*  Clnpea  mirabilis. 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS. 


57 


opened,  of  semi-rotten  salmon-roe.  Many  of  the  Siwashes  have  a 
custom  of  collecting  the  ova,  putting  it  into  wooden  boxes,  and 
then  burying  it  below  high-water  mark  on  the  earthen  flats  above. 
When  decomposition  has  taken  place  to  a  great  extent,  and  the 
mass  has  a  most  penetrating  and  far-reaching  "  funk,"  then  it  is 
ready  to  be  eaten  and  made  merry  over.  The  box  is  usually  un- 
covered without  removing  it  from  its  buried  position  ;  the  eager 
savages  all  squat  around  it,  and  eat  the  contents  with  every  indica- 
tion on  their  hard  faces  of  keen  gastronomic  delight — faugh ! 

The  same  ill-favored  and  heartily-hated  "  dog-fish  "*  of  our  Cape 
Cod  fishermen  is  also  very  abundant  in  these  far-away  waters. 


Indians  Raking  Oolochans  and  Herring. — Stickeen  River. 

Recently,  the  demand  created  for  its  oil  by  the  tanneries  of  Oregon 
and  California  has  made  its  capture  by  the  Indians  an  important 
source  of  revenue  to  them  ;  the  oil  rendered  from  its  liver  is  readily 
sold  by  them  to  the  white  traders,  who  also  have  established  a 
fishery  for  the  purpose  on  Prince  of  Wales  Island.  These  traders 
also  are  making  good  use  of  herring-oil,  which  is  to  be  secured 
here  in  unfailing,  abundant  supply,  to  any  quantity  required. 

The  most  grateful  condiment  to  the  Sitkan  palate  is  rancid  fish- 
oil,  or  oolachan  "butter" — a  semi-solid  grease,  with  a  fetid  smell 
and  taste  ;  into  this  they  always  dip  or  rub  their  flakes  of  dried  fish, 


Squalua  acanthia*. 


58  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

their  berries,  in  fact  everything  that  they  eat.  A  little  wooden 
trencher  or  tub,  grotesquely  carved,  always  is  to  be  seen  (and 
smelled),  placed  alongside  of  the  monotonous  kettle  of  stewed  fish,  or 
pile  of  dried  fish,  which  constitutes  the  regular  spread  fora  full  meal. 
And  again,  a  very  curious,  soap-like  use  of  this  oil  is  made  by  the 
younger  and  more  comely  savages.  An  Indian  never  washes  in  water 
up  in  this  wet  and  watery  wilderness.  I  never  have  seen  an  attempt 
made  to  wash  the  face  or  hands  with  water,  but  they  do  rub  oil  vigor- 
ously over,  and  scrub  it  off  bright  and  dry  with  a  towel,  or  mop,  of 
cedar-bark  shreds  or  dry  sedge-grass.  The  constant  presence  of 
this  strong-flavored  oil  renders  it  a  physical  impossibility  for  a  white 
man,  not  long-accustomed  to  its  odor,  to  enter  a  rancherie  and  eat 
with  the  inmates,  unless  the  pangs  of  starvation  make  him  ravenous. 

Whether  from  taste  itself,  or  sheer  indolence,  the  culinary  art 
of  these  people  is  confined  to  the  incessant  simmering  and  boiling 
of  everything  which  is  not  eaten  raw,  or  ripe  ;  copper,  sheet-iron, 
and  brass  kettles  being  now  universally  used,  are  the  only  decid- 
ed innovation  made  by  contact  with  ourselves  in  their  aboriginal 
cooking  outfit,  though  the  introduction  of  tin  and  cheap  earthen- 
ware dishes  is  growing  more  general  every  day.  Most  of  the  In- 
dian household  utensils  are  made  of  wood ;  they  are  fashioned  in 
several  forms  or  types,  which  appear  to  have  been  faithfully  copied 
from  early  time.  The  berry  and  the  food-trays  are  cut  out  of  solid 
pieces  of  wood,  the  length  being  about  one  and  one-third  times  as 
great  as  the  width,  while  the  depth  is  relatively  small.  In  some  of 
the  large  rancheries  these  trays,  or  troughs,  are  six  to  ten  feet  long ; 
the  outer  ends  of  those  receptacles  are  generally  carved  richly  in  all 
sorts  of  fancy  relief ;  and,  sometimes,  the  sides  are  grotesquely 
painted.  A  common  form,  and  smaller  in  size,  and  a  great  favorite 
with  the  family,  is  boat-shaped,  the  hollow  of  the  dish  being  oval ; 
the  ends  are  provided  with  odd  prow-shaped  projections  that  serve 
as  handles — one  of  these  ends  being  usually  carved  into  the  head 
and  fore-feet  of  some  animal  or  bird,  the  other  to  represent  its 
hind-feet  and  tail.  These  dishes  are  seldom  more  than  eight  or  ten 
inches  in  length,  and  curve  upward  from  the  middle  each  way,  like 
the  "sheer,"  or  the  gunwale,  of  a  clipper  ship. 

Water-dippers,  pot-spoons  and  ladles  are  made  from  horns 
of  the  mountain  sheep.  They  are  steamed,  bent,  and  pared  down 
thin,  carved  and  shaped  so  as  to  be  exceedingly  symmetrical,  and 
well  finished.  The  stew  and  berry-spoons  in  ordinary  use  are  made 


A    STICKEEN    SQUAW 
Boiling  Berries  and  Oil,  Toasting  Herrings,  etc. 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS.  59 

from  the  stiff,  short  black  horns  of  the  mountain  goat,  the  handles 
often  carved  to  represent  a  human  form,  animal,  or  bird.  Knives 
of  all  sorts  are  now  in  use.  Much  ingenuity  is  often  exhibited  by 
the  adaptation  of  old  blades  to  new  handles — in  converting  the 
large,  flat  blacksmithing  files  into  keen  weapons,  and  making  fish- 
cleaning  knives  out  of  pieces  of  iron ;  thin,  square  or  oblong  sheets 
of  this  metal  are  so  fitted  into  oblong  wooden  handles  as  to  re- 
semble the  small  hash-knives  used  in  our  kitchens. 

But  the  Sitkan  housekeeper  glories  in  her  boxes — great  chests 
and  little  ones — in  which  she  stores  everything  of  value  belonging  to 
the  family,  except  the  dogs  and  the  canoes.  The  big  boxes,  corded 
up  with  bark  ropes,  are  her  blanket  and  fur  treasuries  ;  the  smaller 
ones  contain  her  oolachan  "  butter  "  and  dried  fish  and  meat.  The 
larger  chests  are  from  two  and  a  half  to  four  feet  square  ;  the  lesser 
are  between  a  foot  to  two  feet.  The  sides  of  such  a  box  are  made 
of  a  single  piece  of  thinly  shaven  cedar  board,  which  by  steaming 
is  bent  three  times  at  a  right  angle,  and  pegged  tightly  and  very 
neatly  up  to  the  fourth  corner.  The  bottom  is  a  separate  solid 
plank,  keyed  in  with  little  pegs  very  solidly,  and  water-tight ;  the 
cover  is  cut  out  of  a  thick  slab,  and  fits  over  and  sets  down  heavily 
on  the  upper  edge  of  the  chest.  Those  boxes  are  all  decorated  in 
designs  of  the  peculiar  type  so  common  among  these  savages, 
painted  in  black  and  white.  The  next  desideratum  of  the  squaw  is 
a  full  supply  of  cedar-bark  mats,  which  she  plaits  from  strips  of 
this  material,  and  which  are  always  spread  out  on  the  ground  or 
rude  plank  floor  when  the  Indian  prepares  to  roll  up  in  his  blanket 
for  slumber.  Such  mats  are  the  pride  of  all  Thlinket  squaws,  and 
vary  much  in  texture  and  in  pattern. 

But  the  daily  routine  of  the  dusky  housekeeper  is  a  very  dif- 
ferent one  indeed  from  that  characteristic  of  woman's  labor  in  car- 
ing for  our  homes.  No  sweeping  or  dusting  in  the  Indian  ranch- 
erie  ;  no  bed-chambers  to  change  the  linen  in  and  tidy  up  ;  no 
kitchen  or  servants  to  look  after  ;  nothing  whatever  of  the  kind.  Yet 
the  Indian  matron  is  always  busy.  She  has  to  hew  the  firewood 
and  drag  it  in  ;  she  has  to  carry  water  and  attend  to  all  of  the  rude 
cooking  and  filling  of  the  trenchers ;  she  looks  after  the  mats  and 
the  sewing  of  the  children's  fur  and  other  garments — not  much  to 
be  sure  in  the  way  of  dressmaking — she  has  to  make  all  of  the  tedi- 
ous berry-trips,  picking  and  drying  of  the  fruit,  as  well  as  attending 
to  the  preservation,  in  the  same  manner,  of  the  fish  and  game  which 


60  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

the  man  brings  in.  She  has  an  infinite  amount  of  drudgery  to  do 
in  the  line  of  gathering  certain  herbs,  bark,  and  shell-fish.  Many 
small  roots  indigenous  to  the  country,  containing  more  or  less 
starch,  are  eagerly  sought  after,  dried,  and  stored  away  by  the 
women.  The  inner  sap-layer  of  the  spruce  and  also  that  of  the 
hemlock — the  cambium  layer — is  collected  by  cutting  the  trees 
down  and  then  barking  the  trunks  for  that  object.  It  is  shaved  otf 
in  ribbons  and  eaten  in  great  quantities,  both  fresh  and  dried,  and 
is  considered  very  wholesome.  It  is  sweet,  mucilaginous,  but  dis- 
tinctly resinous  in  flavor.  The  rank-growing  seeds,  shoots,  and 
leaf-stalks  of  the  Epilobium  heracleum,  and  many  others,  are 
plucked  and  carried  by  the  squaws  in  huge  bundles  to  the  family 
fire,  and  there  eaten  by  all  hands,  the  stalks  being  dipped,  mouth- 
ful after  mouthful,  in  oil. 

She  has,  however,  no  washing  whatever  of  clothes  to  do  for  any- 
body, except  what  little  she  may  see  fit  to  do  for  herself ;  she  never 
treats  the  dishes  even  to  that  ordeal.  With  all  this,  however,  it 
seems  rather  strange  that  the  clothes  of  the  Indians,  consisting  of 
dresses,  shirts  and  blankets  for  the  men  ;  and  for  women,  petticoats, 
chemises,  dresses  (sometimes),  and  blankets  also — that  these  articles 
usually  appear  neat  and  tolerably  clean — the  children  excepted,  as 
they  are  always  dirty  beyond  all  adequate  description.  Every  indi- 
vidual attends  to  his  or  her  own  washing — if  the  husband  wants  a 
clean  shirt,  he  washes  it  himself. 

Before  the  introduction  of  the  potato  through  early  white  fur- 
traders,  the  only  plant  cultivated  by  the  Alaskan  savages  was  a  po- 
tent weed  which  they  grew  as  a  substitute  for  tobacco — the  impor- 
tation of  the  latter,  however,  has  taken  its  place  entirely  to-day,  be- 
cause the  Virginian  weed  is  far  more  pleasant.  But  the  old  stone 
mortars  and  pestles  that  are  still  to  be  found  knocking  around 
the  most  venerable  town-sites,  bear  evidence  to  the  industry  of 
making  native  tobacco  here  ages  ago.  This  plant  was  prepared 
for  use  by  drying  over  a  fire  on  a  little  frame  stretcher,  then  bruised 
to  a  powder  in  the  stone  mortars,  then  moistened  and  pressed  into 
cakes.  It  was  not  smoked  in  a  pipe,  but,  mixed  with  a  little  clam- 
shell lime  (burnt  for  the  purpose),  it  was  chewed  or  held  in  the 
cheek,  just  as  the  Peruvian  Indians  use  coca.*  Everybody  knows 

*  This  accounts  for  the  puzzling  appearance  of  ancient  stone  mortars  and 
pestles  iii  Alaska,  throughout  the  Sitkan  region.  Ethnologists  have  endear* 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS.  61 

how  fond  Indians  are  of  tobacco— there  is  no  exception  to  the  rule 
in  Alaska,  and  no  excuse  for  attempting  to  recite  in  these  pages  the 
well-worn  story  anew. 

No  domesticated  animals,  except  dogs,  are  to  be  found  with  the 
Alaskan  Indians — no  cats  or  fowls.  The  original  breed  of  curs  has 
been  very  much  disguised  by  imported  strains  ;  the  present  natives 
are  gray  and  black,  shaggy,  wolfish  beasts,  about  the  size  of  a  large 
spitz  dog.  These  cowardly,  treacherous  animals  alone  make  a  white 
man's  stay  in  an  Indian  village  a  burden  to  his  existence. 

The  work  bestowed  by  several  of  the  Sitkan  clans  upon  their  so- 
called  potato  gardens  is  hardly  to  be  designated  as  the  "  cultiva- 
tion "  of  that  tuber.  It  forms  to-day,  this  vegetable  does,  a  very 
important  part  of  the  food-supply,  and  where  a  white  man  takes 
hold  of  such  a  garden  the  result,  in  a  small  way,  is  very  satisfac- 
tory ;  but  the  Siwash  finds  that  the  greater  part  of  the  low,  flat, 
rich  soil  in  this  country  is  so  thickly  wooded  that  the  task  of  clear- 
ing the  ground  is  altogether  too  much  for  him  to  even  consider, 
much  less  undertake.  But  when  he  can  find  a  place  where  an  old 
settlement  once  existed,  though  long  abandoned — there  the  sites 
of  decayed  rancheries  are  sure  to  be  of  rich,  warm  soil — such  are 
the  spots  which  the  Siwash  calls  his  garden,  and  where  his  potatoes 
are  rudely  planted,  little  or  no  attention  being  paid  to  the  hoeing 
and  drilling  which  we  deem  essential,  therefore  the  variety  in  use 
has  been  run  down  so  that  the  size  and  yield  is  very  small,  and  the 
quality  watery  and  poor. 

While  we  observe  the  very  general  possession  of  firearms  in 
every  rancherie,  and  we  hardly  ever  see  a  canoe-load  of  savages 
unless  the  barrels  of  several  muskets  or  rifles  project  over  the 
gunwale,  yet  these  Sitkan  Indians  are  not  great  hunters  ;  but  the 
potent  fact  that  there  is  no  place  in  all  this  region  where  foot  travel 
is  practicable  into  the  interior,  or  even  along  the  coast  margin  it- 
self, affords  an  excellent  reason  ;  they  do,  however,  kill  a  very  con- 
siderable number  of  black  bears  every  year,  at  two  special  seasons 
therein,  i.e.,  when  these  brutes  are  found  prowling  upon  the  sea- 
beach.  But  they  never  follow  bruin  into  the  mountainous  re- 
cesses, where  he  invariably  retreats. 

ored  to  reason  that  certain  extinct  tribes  must  have  cultivated  grain  up  here 
of  some  kind  and  used  it  as  food.  I  am  indebted  to  the  venerable  Dr.  W.  F. 
Tolmie  for  this  fact,  he  showing  me  the  mortars  and  giving  the  reason  of  their 
use  in  December,  1866,  at  Victoria,  B.  C. 


62  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

In  the  early  spring,  during  that  brief  period  when  the  weeds 
and  grasses  first  grow  green  along  the  outskirts  of  the  timber  in 
warm  sheltered  nooks  down  by  the  tide-level,  black  bears  come 
below  from  the  cold,  gloomy  canons  above  and  feed  upon  the 
sprouting  skunk-cabbage  *  and  other  succulent  shoots,  browsing 
here  and  rooting  up  there,  these  tender  growths,  just  as  hogs  do 
in  our  orchards  and  clover-fields.  Again,  late  in  autumn,  when  the 
salmon  rush  up  into  the  estuaries  and  through  the  shallows  by 
countless  myriads,  bruin  is  once  more  tempted  down  to  the  sea- 
beaches,  and  again  gets  into  trouble.  In  the  same  manner  the 
Indians  secure  the  beautiful  little  mule-deer,  f  which  also  loves 
tender  vegetation,  and  in  this  love  falls  an  easy  prey  to  the  silent 
approach  of  a  canoe  with  its  skulking  crew.  Geese  and  ducks,  dur- 
ing winter  months,  spend  much  time  on  the  quiet  fiords  in  large 
flocks,  and  constitute  the  chief  gunning  of  the  Siwashes,  who  shoot 
them  from  their  canoes  with  the  same  old  flint-lock  trade-muskets 
first  used  by  the  whites  a  hundred  years  ago.  The  Indian  admires 
this  pattern  still  above  all  other  patterns — despises  the  percussion- 
cap,  which  in  this  damp  region  often  fails  him,  and  the  trader, 
knowing  this  weakness  of  the  savage,  always  has  a  stock  of  these 
flint-lock  muskets,  newly  made,  on  hand.  A  supply  is  steadily 
furnished  by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  at  Victoria. 

But  the  one  thing  of  joy,  of  delight,  and  of  infinite  use  to  the 
native  of  the  Sitkan  archipelago  is  his  canoe.  Life,  indeed,  would 
be  a  sad  problem  for  him  were  it  not  for  this  adjunct  of  his  own 
creation.  Upon  its  construction  he  lavishes  the  best  of  his  thought, 
the  height  of  his  manual  skill,  and  his  infinite  patience.  The  re- 
sult of  this  attention  is  to  fashion  from  a  single  cedar  log  a  little 
vessel  which  challenges  our  admiration  invariably,  for  its  fine  out- 
line and  its  seaworthiness  and  strength. 

All  the  canoes  of  this  region  have  a  common  model,  and  are  simi- 
lar in  type,  though  they  differ  much  in  details  of  shape  and  size. 
They  are  all  made  from  the  indigenous  pine  J  and  giant  cedar,  §  the 
wood  of  which  is  light,  durable,  and  worked  very  readily  ;  but  it  is 
apt  to  split  parallel  to  its  grain.  This  constitutes  the  only  solici- 


m  sp. 

f  Ceniis  columbianm — a  well-grown  specimen  weighs  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds.  Great  numbers  are  taken  in  the  Tahkoo  region,  though  it 
is  found  everywhere. 

\  Abies  sitkeiisis.  §  Thuja  gigantea. 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OF  THE   SITKANS.  63 

tude  of  the  Indian's  mind.  He  keeps  the  canoe  covered  with  mats 
and  brush  whenever  it  is  hauled  out,  even  for  a  few  days,  to  avoid 
this  danger,  for  whenever  a  canoe  is  heavily  laden,  and  working,  as 
it  will  do,  in  a  rough  channel,  it  is  in  constant  danger  of  splitting 
at  the  cleavage  lines  of  its  grain,  and  thus  jeopardizing  its  living  as 
well  as  dead  freight. 

With  an  exception  of  the  bow  and  stern-pieces,  each  canoe,  no 
matter  how  large  or  how  small,  is  made  in  the  same  manner  and 
from  a  single  log,  which  is  roughed  out  in  the  forest,  then  towed 
around  to  the  permanent  village,  where  it  is  hauled  up  in  front  of 
the  architect's  house.  Here  he  works  upon  it  during  winter  months, 
usually  in  odd  hours,  employing  nothing  but  his  little  adze-like  hat- 
chet and  fire  to  assist  in  giving  it  shape  and  fine  lines.  The  requi- 
site expansion  amidships,  to  afford  that  beam  required,  is  effected 
by  steaming  with  water  and  hot  stones  and  the  insertion  of  several 
thwart  sticks.  Canoes  are  smoothed  outside  and  painted  black,  with 
a  red  or  white  streak  under  the  gunwale  in  most  cases ;  inside 
they  bear  the  regular  fine  tooth-marks  of  the  excavating  adze,  and 
are  smeared  with  red-ochre.  The  paddles  are  usually  made  of  yel- 
low cypress,  and  a  great  variety  of  small  wooden  baling  dippers  are 
also  provided,  one  or  two  for  each  canoe,  because  the  water  often 
slops  over  the  gunwales  in  bad  weather.  The  canoe  itself  is  never 
suffered  to  leak.  The  average  size  is  one  of  fifteen  to  twenty  feet 
in  length,  which  will  carry  from  eight  to  ten  savages,  with  baggage. 
One  having  a  length  of  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  feet  carries  as 
many  men.  The  smaller  canoes  of  from  twelve  to  thirteen  feet  are 
usually  used  by  one  or  two  savages  in  their  quick,  irregular  trips  to 
and  from  the  village,  and  are  easily  launched  and  hauled  out  by  one 
man. 

It  is  very  doubtful,  indeed,  whether  the  Sitkan  ever  took  or  takes 
any  real  enjoyment  in  hunting  or  fishing.  If  he  does,  it  is  never 
exhibited  on  his  countenance  or  evidenced  by  his  language.  It  is, 
in  fact,  the  serious  business  of  his  life,  and  the  steady  routine  of 
its  prosecution  has  robbed  him  of  every  enjoyable  sporting  sensa- 
tion which  we  love  to  experience  when  after  fish  or  game.  Per- 
haps, however,  he  may  recall  the  thrill  of  that  feeling  which  he  felt 
when,  as  a  boy,  he  was  first  taken  out  in  his  father's  canoe  to  the 
halibut  banks,  and  there  permitted  to  bait  a  huge  wooden  hook 
and  haul  away  upon  the  taut  kelp-line  when  the  "kambala"  had 
swallowed  it ;  but  the  necessity  of  going  out  to  this  shoal  in  all 


64  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

sorts  of  disagreeable  weather  every  summer  and  winter  of  his  sub- 
sequent existence,  at  very  frequent  intervals,  soon  destroyed  pleas- 
urable emotions.  Therefore,  he  fashions  his  acute-angled  wooden 
hooks,  his  iron-tipped  fish  and  seal  spears,  and  polishes  up  his  mus- 
ket with  none  of  those  enjoyable  anticipations  which  possess  the 
soul  of  a  white  sportsman. 

In  1841-42  the  best  understanding  of  the  Russian  and  English 
traders  agreed  in  reporting  a  population  of  over  twenty  thousand 
Indians  within  the  limits  of  the  Alexander  archipelago ;  to-day  the 
same  country  can  show  no  more  than  a  scant  seven  thousand.  The 
inroads  that  small-pox  and  measles  have  made,  by  which  these 
savages  were  destroyed  even  as  fire  sweeps  through  and  burns 
drought-withered  thickets,  leave  little  doubt  as  to  the  great  numer- 
ical superiority  of  earlier  days  as  compared  with  the  present.  This 
decay  and  abandonment  is  everywhere  exhibited  now  even  in  the  per- 
manent villages,  where  houses  have  been  deserted  completely  :  some 
are  shut  up,  mouldering,  and  rotting  away  upon  their  foundations  ; 
others,  large  and  fit  for  the  shelter  of  fifty  or  sixty  natives,  will  be 
found  tenanted  by  only  two  or  three  Siwashes.  All  the  standing 
carved  posts  in  this  entire  region,  with  rare  exceptions,  are,  as  a  rule, 
more  or  less  advanced  into  decay.  A  rank  growth  of  weeds,  dark  and 
undisturbed  in  some  cases,  presses  up  close  to  inhabited  houses, 
the  traffic  not  being  sufficient  to  keep  them  down.  The  original 
features  of  these  settlements,  in  a  few  years  more  of  this  unchecked 
neglect  and  decay,  will  have  entirely  disappeared  as  they  have 
already  at  Sitka.  At  the  present  hour,  however,  we  can  go  among 
them,  and  readily  call  up  to  our  minds  what  they  once  were  when 
they  were  swarming  with  occupants  who  were  dressed  in  tanned- 
leather  shirts  and  sea-otter  cloaks,  as  they  thronged  about  the 
ships  of  Cook  and  Vancouver. 

Slavery,  which  was  originally  firmly  interwoven  with  the  social 
fabric  of  these  people,  has  been  about  abolished — slaves  themselves 
to-day  are  very  scarce,  and  are  not  much  more  so  than  in  name. 
They  were  the  captives  taken  in  savage  warfare  between  opposing 
clans,  and  were  most  horribly  tortured  and  cruelly  treated  by  their 
masters. 

As  a  rule  the  young  people  marry  young,  after  the  stolid  fashion 
of  Indians.  They  approve  of  polygamy,  but  seldom  do  you  find  a 
man  with  more  than  one  squaw,  simply  because  the  women  do  not 
contribute  materially  and  primarily  to  the  support  of  the  family, 


ABORIGINAL    LIFE   OF   THE   SITKANS.  65 

and  attend  only  to  the  accessory  duties  of  it ;  thus  it  becomes  an 
increased  tax  upon  the  dull  energies  of  the  savage  whenever 
he  adds  an  extra  woman  to  his  household.  The  squaws  are  all  well 
treated  everywhere  up  here  ;  they  have  just  as  much  to  say  as  their 
lords  and  masters  whenever  the  occasion  of  buying,  selling,  or  hir- 
ing arises  ;  as  to  the  children  (we  will  not  see  many  of  them  to- 
day), they  are  always  kindly  cared  for  by  both  parents,  and  the 
whole  tribe  is  as  indulgent,  since  they  are  constantly  roaming  about 
the  village,  after  the  custom  of  youngsters  universally. 

A  candid  verdict  will  result,  in  view  of  the  surroundings  of  the 
Koloshian,  that  the  only  vice  which  can  be  legitimately  charged  up 
against  him,  or  his  kind,  is  the  sin  of  gambling.  To  this  dissipa- 
tion the  Alaskan  savage  is  desperately  prone ;  the  monotonous  chant 
of  the  stick-shuffling  players  is  ever  on  the  air  in  the  villages.  These 
worthies  sit  on  the  ground,  in-a  circle  usually,  in  the  centre  of  which 
a  mat  is  spread  ;  six  or  seven  small  wooden  pins  about  as  large  as 
the  little  finger  of  your  hand,  upon  which  various  values  are 
marked  or  carved,  are  taken  into  the  hands  of  the  first  gambler, 
who  thrusts  them  into  a  ball  of  soft  teased  cedar  bark,  or  holds 
them  under  his  blanket,  then  shuffles  them  rapidly,  meanwhile 
shouting  a  deep  guttural  hah-hah-ee-nah-hah !  the  others  watch 
him  with  lynx-like  eyes  for  a  few  moments,  when  one  of  the 
players  suddenly  orders  the  shuffler  to  show  his  hands,  in  which  the 
sticks  are  firmly  clinched,  and  at  the  same  time  endeavors  to  guess 
the  value  of  these  sticks  in  either  one  hand  or  the  other,  which 
have  been  held  up — he  pauses  a  moment,  then  makes  his  decision, 
the  clinched  hand  designated  is  opened,  the  little  sticks  fall  to  the 
mat,  and  the  caller  wins  or  loses  just  as  he  happens  to  hit  the  value 
expressed  by  the  markings  on  these  pins  :  if  he  guesses  correctly 
he  wins  everything  in  the  pot  or  pool,  and  takes  up  the  wooden 
dice  in  turn,  to  shuffle,  shout,  and  repeat  for  the  rest  of  the  circle. 
This  game  is  usually  sustained  night  and  day,  until  some  one  of 
the  party  remains  the  winner  of  everything  that  the  others  started 
in  with. 

That  wretched  debauchery  which  an  introduction  of  rum  into 
the  rancheries  of  these  natives  has  caused,  cannot  be  justly  laid  at 
the  Indian's  door ;  this  intense  morbid  craving  for  liquor  among 
the  Alaskan  savages  of  this  region  is  most  likely  due  to  the  climate 
—it  is  not  near  so  strong  in  the  appetite  of  the  natives  who  live 
east  of  the  coast  range.  Although  Congress  has  legislated,  and 
5 


66  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

our  officials  have  endeavored  to  carry  out  the  prohibition  statutes, 
yet  the  matter  thus  far  is  wholly  beyond  control — the  savage  can- 
not only  smuggle  successfully  within  these  intricate  watery  chan- 
nels, but  he  now  thoroughly  understands  the  distillation  of  rum  it- 
self from  sugar  and  molasses. 

There  is  something  in  this  atmosphere  which  enables  a  white 
man  to  drink  a  great  deal  more  with  impunity  than  he  can  in  any 
other  section  of  the  United  States  or  Territories — the  quantities 
of  strong  tea,  the  nips  of  brandy,  wine,  and  cordials  which  he  will 
swallow  with  perfect  physical  indifference,  in  the  course  of  every 
day  of  his  life,  at  Sitka  for  instance,  would  drive  him  to  delirium 
in  an  exceedingly  short  time  if  repeated  at  San  Francisco.  Naturally 
enough,  we  find  that  the  same  craving  for  stimulants  is  reflected 
by  Indian  stomachs  ;  and  now  that  they  have  fully  grasped  the 
understanding  of  how  to  successfully  satisfy  that  aching,  no  valid 
reason  can  be  presented  why  the  Thlinket  will  not  continue  to 
gratify  a  burning  desire  in  this  fatal  direction  to  the  ultimate  ex- 
tinction of  his  race.  This  fault  of  our  civilization  is  far  more  potent 
to  effect  his  worldly  degeneration,  than  any  one  or  all  of  our  com- 
bined virtues  are  to  regenerate  his  earthly  existence. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  ALPINE  ZONE  OF  MOUNT  ST.    ELIAS. 

The  Hot  Spring  Oasis  and  the  Humming-bird  near  Sitka. — The  Value  and 
Pleasure  of  Warm  Springs  in  Alaska. — The  Old  "Redoubt '»  or  Russian 
Jail. —The  Tread  well  Mine. — Futility  of  Predicting  what  may,  or  what 
will  not  Happen  in  Mining  Discovery. — Coal  of  Alaska  not  fit  for  Steam- 
ing Purposes. — Salmon  Canneries. — The  Great  "Whaling  Ground"  of 
Fairweather.  —  Superb  and  Lofty  Peaks  seen  at  Sea  One  Hundred  and 
Thirty-five  Miles  Distant. — Mount  Fairweather  so  named  as  the  Whale- 
men's Barometer. — The  Storm  here  in  1741  which  Separated  Bering  and 
his  Lieutenant. — The  Grandeur  of  Mount  St.  Elias,  Nineteen  Thousand 
Five  Hundred  Feet. — A  Tempestuous  and  Forbidding  Coast  to  the  Mariner. 
—The  Brawling  Copper  River. — Mount  Wrangel,  Twenty  Thousand  Feet, 
the  Loftiest  Peak  on  the  North  American  Continent. — In  the  Forks  of 
this  Stream. — Exaggerated  Fables  of  the  Number  and  Ferocity  of  the 
Natives. — Frigid,  Gloomy  Grandeur  of  the  Scenery  in  Prince  William 
Sound.— The  First  Vessel  ever  built  by  White  Men  on  the  Northwest 
Coast,  Constructed  here  in  1794.— The  Brig  Phoenix,  One  Hundred  and 
Eighty  Tons,  No  Paint  or  Tar.— Covered  with  a  Coat  of  Spruce-Gum, 
Ochre,  and  Whale-oil,  Wrecked  in  1799  with  Twenty  Priests  and  Dea- 
cons of  the  Greek  Church  on  Board. — Every  Soul  Lost. — Love  of  the 
Natives  for  their  Rugged,  Storm-beaten  Homes. 

A  BRONZED  humming-bird*  lies  upon  the  author's  table,  that  once 
hovered  and  darted  over  the  waters  of  Sitka  Sound.  Its  torn  and 
rudely  stuffed  skin  was  given  to  him  at  Fort  Simpson  with  the  re- 
mark that  it  came  from  the  hot  springs  just  below  New  Archangel ; 
and  that  nowhere  else  in  all  of  a  vast  wilderness,  outside  of  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  these  springs,  ever  did  or  could  a  humming- 
bird be  found.  Should,  therefore,  a  visitor  to  this  Alaskan  solitude 
chance  to  travel  within  it  during  the  months  of  April  and  May,  if 

*  Sdasphorw  rufus—ii  is  common  in  California,  Oregon,  and  parts  of 
Washington  Territory,  and  Southern  British  Columbia— never  found  north  of 
Victoria  on  the  coast,  except  as  above  stated  :  it  winters  in  Central  America. 


68  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

he  will  but  follow  the  path  of  that  wee  brave  bird,  he  will  be  led 
into  a  veritable  green  and  fragrant  oasis,  encircled  all  round  about 
with  savage  icy  mountains  and  snowy  forests. 

Twenty  miles  south  of  Sitka,  on  the  same  island,  in  a  pretty 
little  bay  sheltered  by  a  score  of  tiny  islets,  there — from  the  slop- 
ing face  of  a  verdant  bank,  the  finest  hot  springs  known  to  Alaska 
flow  up  and  out  to  the  sea.  Fleecy  clouds  of  steamy  moisture  rise 
over  all  to  betray  from  a  distance  this  delightful  retreat ;  the  lux- 
uriant vegetation,  the  variety  of  shrubs  in  full  blossom  here,  when 
all  botanical  life  about  them  is  as  dead  as  cold  can  make  it,  create 
thereon  a  spot  in  the  early  spring  where  all  the  senses  of  a  traveller 
can  rest  with  exquisite  pleasure — the  waters  of  the  bay  in  front 
are  covered  with  geese  and  ducks,  while  the  rugged  mountains  that 
rise  as  a  wall  behind  are  teeming  with  deer  and  bear  and  grouse, 
secluded  in  the  jungle. 

The  Indians,  from  time  immemorial,  have  resorted  to  these 
hot  waters  of  Baranov  Island  ;  four  distinct  and  freely  flowing 
springs  take  their  origin  in  those  crevices  and  fissures  of  the  f eld- 
spathic  granite  foundation  of  the  earth  hereabouts ;  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  largest  spring,  at  its  source,  is  150°  to  160°  Fah. ;  the 
waters  are  charged  with  sulphur  to  a  very  great  extent.  So  jealous 
were  the  savages  of  any  attempt  among  themselves  which  might 
savor  of  a  monopoly  of  the  use  of  these  healing,  beneficent  warm 
streams,  that  no  one  tribe  ever  dared  to  build  a  village  upon  the 
site  ;  but,  by  tacit  consent,  all  were  allowed  to  camp  thereon.  Some 
Indians  often  came  from  a  distance  of  three  hundred  miles  away  to 
enjoy  the  sanitary  result  of  bathing  here,  a  few  days  or  a  few 
weeks,  as  their  troubles  might  warrant. 

Naturally  the  Russians,  burdened  at  Sitka  with  all  diseases 
which  flesh  is  heir  to,  turned  their  attention  very  promptly  to  this 
sanitarium  ;  they  erected  a  small  hospital  and  two  spacious  bath- 
houses over  the  springs,  keeping  everything  in  the  strictest  order 
and  cleanliness,  without  and  within  doors.  A  sad  change  con- 
fronts us  to-day — in  so  far  as  care  of  human  hands  ;  but  the  savage 
Sitkan  is  here,  exulting  in  his  renewed  supremacy. 

The  occurrence,  however,  of  hot  springs  is  quite  frequent  every- 
where in  this  archipelago  ;  yet  their  extent  and  volume  of  outflow 
is  not  so  great  as  evidenced  by  those  we  have  just  noticed  of 
Baranov  Island.  Indians  love  to  immerse  their  entire  bodies  in 
pools  and  eddies  of  these  hot  rivulets,  which  are  cooled  suffi- 


THE   ALPINE   ZONE   OF   MOUNT   ST.   ELIAS.  69 

ciently  by  flowing  a  dozen  or  fifty  yards  from  their  origin  over  peb- 
bly bottoms ;  Siwashes  will  soak  themselves  in  this  manner  for 
hours  at  a  time,  with  nothing  but  their  heads  visible.  Though 
the  Koloshian,  like  all  others  of  his  kind,  never  verbally  complains, 
yet  he  is  subject  to  acute  rheumatism,  to  fevers,  and  to  divers  malig- 
nant cutaneous  diseases ;  these  springs,  wherever  known  to  him, 
are  always  well  regarded  as  his  happy  relief  and  hope.  Certain  it 
is  that  when  you  behold  the  parboiled  skin  of  a  native,  after  bathing 
here,  the  fair  almost  white  complexion  really  startles,  for,  prior  to 
the  immersion,  he  was  a  coppery  brown  or  black. 

Midway  between  these  thermal  fountains  and  Sitka  is  the  site 
of  an  old  Russian  jail  or  prison ;  in  a  deep  inlet,  with  no  land 
in  sight,  but  lofty  mountains  rising  abruptly  from  the  water's  edge, 
is  the  "Redoubt."  Here  a  small  alpine  lake  empties  itself  in  a 
foaming  cascade  channel  of  a  few  yards  in  width,  that  quickly 
plunges  into  a  canon,  the  perpendicular  walls  of  which  are  a  full 
thousand  feet  in  mural  height.  The  Russians  erected  mills  of 
various  kinds  along  the  rapids  to  avail  themselves  of  such  abundant 
water-power ;  the  buildings  stood  upon  a  bare  rocky  portion  of  the 
channel,  and  were  kept  in  order  by  an  old  veteran  in  command ; 
a  squad  of  soldiers  aided  him ;  the  fish,  dried  and  salted  salmon, 
which  were  required  for  the  use  of  the  company,  were  annually 
caught  here  as  they  swarmed  up  the  cascade  from  the  sea,  into 
Gloobaukie  Lake. 

The  great  facility  of  travel  afforded  by  these  sheltered  canals  of 
the  Alexander  archipelago,  has  enabled  and  facilitated  a  most 
energetic  and  persistent  search  for  gold  and  silver  by  our  miners, 
but  the  rugged  features  of  the  country  and  its  dense  timber  and 
jungle  have  rendered  the  progress  of  such  investigation  slow,  and 
one  of  great  physical  difficulty.  In  the  sands  of  every  stream  flow- 
ing between  Calif ornia  and  Cook's  Inlet  the  " color  "of  gold  can  be 
found,  but  the  paying  quantities  therein  seldom  warrant  a  mining 
camp  or  settlement.  To-day  the  only  mining  rendezvous  which  we 
find  in  Alaska  is  a  little  village  of  rough  cabins  called  "  Juneau 
City,"  located  on  the  north  side  of  Gastineaux  Channel,  at  a  point 
near  the  upper  end  of  that  passage  ;  near  by,  and  adjacent,  is 
established  a  large  gold-quartz  stamp-mill*  on  Douglas  Island, 

*  The  Treadwell  Mine— free-milling  gold  ore  ;  130  stamps ;  employs  150 
to  250  men — situated  right  at  the  tide-level. 


70  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

where  the  mining  experts  feel  justified  in  predicting  a  steady  and 
inexhaustible  yield  of  paying  ore — it  is  paying  handsomely  at 
present. 

This  subject  of  what  is,  or  what  is  not,  a  good  mining  region  or 
investment  is  one  to  which  no  rational  man  can  well  afford  to  com- 
mit himself.  Those  who  have  had  extended  experience  in  these 
matters  know  that  it  is  a  topic  which  baffles  the  best  investigator, 
and  returns  no  safe  answer  to  the  most  intelligent  cross-examina- 
tion. The  true  advice  which  can  be  honestly  given  is  that  which 
prompts  every  man  interested  to  look  and  resolve  wholly  for  him- 
self, for  he,  in  fact,  knows  just  as  much  as  anybody  else.  At  the 
most,  the  finding  of  a  rich  or  desirable  lead  of  gold  or  silver  in  a 
new  country  is  an  accident  or  sheer  opportunity  of  chance.  Whether 
it  will  hold  out,  or  end  in  a  "  pocket,"  is  also  only  to  be  determined 
by  working  it  for  all  it  is  worth.  Once  in  a  while  a  man  makes  a  rich 
find,  and  is  rewarded  ;  but  an  overwhelming  majority  of  prospect- 
ors are  ever  wandering  in  fruitless,  restless,  tireless  search  for  those 
golden  ingots  which  are  still  hidden  in  the  recesses  of  mountain 
ledges,  or  buried  in  the  alluvium  of  river  bottoms.  The  miners  in 

O         " 

Alaska  embrace  various  nationalities — Australians  and  Canadians, 
Cornishmen  and  Californians,  Oregonians  and  British  Columbians 
predominate — but  the  number  aggregated  is  not  large.* 

If  gold  or  silver-quartz  mines  of  free-milling  ore  (no  matter  how 
low  the  grade)  can  be  located  anywhere  on  the  shores  of  these 
mountainous  fiords  of  the  Alexander  archipelago,  their  wealth  will 
be  great,  because  the  transportation  to  them  and  from  them  is  prac- 
tically without  cost.  The  expense  of  working  such  valuable  quartz 
mines  up  a  hundred  or  more  miles  from  the  sea,  will  result  in  aban- 
donment, where  reaching  them  involves  frequent  transfers  of  sup- 
plies, and  the  working  season  is  cut  by  the  rigor  of  winter  to  less 
than  half  or  one-third  of  every  year.  The  same  mines,  down  within 
the  dockage  of  an  ocean-steamer  in  the  Sitkan  district  would  be 
a  steady  source  of  wealth  and  industry  all  the  year  round. 

The  coal  which  is  found  here  is  not  satisfactory  for  steamers' 
use — too  heavily  charged  with  sulphur.  Copper  ore  is  well-known, 
but  not  worked  in  competition  with  the  Lake  Superior  and  Arizona 
cheap  outputs.  At  the  present  writing  there  are  no  active  indus- 

*  Eight  hundred,  or  a  thousand,  perhaps.  They  come  and  go  suddenly, 
alternating  in  travel  as  the  rumors  relative  to  their  occupation  circulate. 


THE   ALPINE  ZONE   OF   MOUNT   ST.    ELIAS.  71 

tries  whatsoever  in  the  Sitkan  archipelago  beyond  the  energetic 
stamp-mill  of  the  Treadwell  Mine  on  Douglas  Island,  and  the 
limited  placer  diggings  of  Juneau  City.  Until  a  market  is  created 
for  its  large  natural  resources  of  food-fishes,  the  little  canneries 
which  our  people  have  started  here  will  not  develop  ;  nor  will  the 
timber  be  of  much  commercial  importance  until  the  great  reser- 
voirs of  the  lower  coast  are  exhausted.  Statisticians  and  political 
economists  can  easily  figure  out  the  time  when  a  population  of 
twenty-five  or  thirty  millions  of  our  own  people  will  be  living  upon 
the  Pacific  coast  alone  ;  then  the  real  value  of  those  latent  re- 
sources *  of  the  Sitkan  watery  wilderness  must  be  patent  to  a  most 
indifferent  calculator. 

With  this  survey  of  the  Alexander  archipelago  fixed  on  our 
minds,  we  pass  from  it  through  the  bold  Cross  Sound  headlands 
that  loom  above  those  storm-churned  swells  of  an  open  ocean,  which 
break  here  in  unceasing  turmoil,  and  we  sail  out  into  an  area 
that  charts  tell  us  is  the  "  Fairweather  ground,"  over  which  that 
superb  peak  itself  and  sister,  Crillon,  stand  like  vast  sentinel- 
towers,  rearing  their  immense  bulk  into  many  successive  strata  of 
clouds,  until  the  elevation  of  thirteen  thousand  and  fourteen  thou- 
sand feet  is  reached,  sheer  and  bold  above  the  sea.  This  great  ex- 
panse of  the  Pacific  Ocean  between  us  and  Kadiak  Island,  five 
hundred  and  sixty  miles  to  the  west,  and  again  down  to  Victoria, 
nine  hundred  miles  farther  to  the  south,  was  the  rendezvous  of  the 
most  successful  and  numerous  whaling  fleet  that  the  history  of  the 
business  records.  In  these  waters  the  large  "  right "  whale  did  most 
congregate,  and  the  capture  of  it  between  1846  and  1851  drew  not 
less  than  three  and  four  hundred  ships  with  their  hardy  crews  to 
this  area  backed  by  the  Alaskan  coast  They  never  landed,  how- 
ever, unless  shipwrecked,  which  was  a  rare  occurrence,  but  cruised 
"  off  and  on  "  with  the  majestic  head  of  Mount  Fairweather  as  their 
point  of  arrival  and  departure. 

*  A  few  small  saw-mills  have  been  erected  at  several  points  in  this  Sitkan 
district  to  supply  the  local  demand  of  trading-posts  and  mining-camps.  With 
reference  to  quality  or  economic  worth,  the  timber  found  herein  may  be 
classified  as  follows,  in  the  order  of  its  value:  1.  Yellow  cedar  (Cupressm 
nutkaen&is)  and  Thuja  gigantea,  the  red  variety.  2.  Sitkan  spruce  (Abies  sit- 
kensis).  This  is  the  most  abundant.  3.  Hemlock  (Abies  mertensiana).  4. 
Balsam  fir  (Abies  canaden&is).  The  finest  growth  of  this  timber  is  found  upon 
Prince  of  Wales  Island,  Admiralty,  and  Kou  Islands,  within  the  Alaskan  lines. 


72  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

When  the  whalemen  saw  the  summit  of  that  snow-clad  peak  un- 
veiled by  clouds  they  were  sure  of  fair  weather  for  several  consec- 
utive days  afterward,  hence  the  name.  Early  one  June  morning 
Captain  Baker,  of  the  Reliance,  called  the  author  up  to  see  a  moun- 
tain which  was  sharply  denned  in  the  warm>  hazy  glow  of  the  dawn- 
ing sunrise  on  the  horizon — there,  bearing  N.N.E.,*  was  the  image 
of  Mount  Fairweather,  just  as  clear  cut  as  a  cameo,  and  lofty  as 
the  ship's  spars,  though  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  miles  distant ! 
Closely  associated  and  fully  as  impressive  and  quite  as  high,  was 
the  heavier  form  of  the  snowy  Crillon. 

That  long  stretch  of  more  than  four  hundred  miles  of  bare  Alas- 
kan coast,  between  Prince  William's  Sound  and  Cape  Spencer,  which 
stands  at  the  northern  entrance  to  the  Sitkan  waters,  is  one  that 
sustains  very  little  human  or  animal  life,  and  is  so  rough  and  is  so 
bleak,  that  from  September  until  May  it  is  feared  and  avoided  by 
the  hardiest  navigator.  The  flanks  of  Mounts  Fairweather  and  Cril- 
lon rise  boldly  from  the  ocean  at  their  western  feet,  and  this  sheer- 
ness  of  elevation  undoubtedly  gives  them  that  effect  of  cloud-com- 
pelling, which  does  not  lose  its  awe-inspiring  power  even  when 
a  hundred  miles  away.  To  the  northward  and  westward  of  Fair- 
weather,  however,  the  alpine  range  which  it  dominates  abruptly 
sets  back  from  the  coast  some  forty  or  fifty  miles,  then  turns  about 
and  faces  the  sea  in  an  irregular,  lofty  half-moon  of  more  than  three 
hundred  miles  in  length.  A  low  table-land,  or  rolling  shelf,  is  ex- 
tended at  its  base,  intervening  between  the  mountains  and  the  wash 
of  the  Pacific.  It  is  timbered  with  spruce  quite  thickly,  and  re- 
ported by  the  Indians  to  be  the  best  berrying  ground  in  all  Alaska. 

The  Fairweather  shore  is  a  steep,  woody  one,  much  indented 
with  roadstead  coves  or  bays ;  the  coast  line  is  hilly  and  uneven, 
with  some  rocks  and  rocky  islets  scattered  along  not  far  out  from 
the  surf.  The  sand-beaches  which  extend  from  Fairweather  toward 
the  feet  of  those  under  St.  Elias  are  remarkably  broad  and  exten- 
sive ;  so  much  so  that,  from  the  ship's  mast-head,  large  lagoons 
within  the  outer  swell  of  the  open  ocean  are  frequently  seen. 
These  beach-locked  estuaries  communicate  with  the  ocean  by  shal- 


*  Tuesday,  June  13, 1874.  It  did  not  seem  possible  at  first  that  the  officer's 
observations  were  accurate,  but  the  captain  verified  the  ship's  position  anew, 
and  confirmed  the  correctness  of  Lieutenant  Glover's  entry  and  sights :  ' '  bear 
ing  N.N.E.,  135  m." 


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THE   ALPINE   ZONE   OF   MOUNT   ST.    ELIAS.  73 

low  breaks  in  the  outer  beach-wall  of  sand  and  gravel,  across  all  of 
which  the  sea  rolls  with  great  violence. 

Right  under  the  towering  slopes  of  Fairweather,  as  at  St.  Elias, 
is  a  large  area  of  upland  entirely  destitute  of  verdure  of  any  kind, 
except  the  brown  and  russet  mosses  and  lichens  ;  huge,  rugged 
masses  of  naked  rocks  are  strewn  about  in  every  direction — an  old 
prehistoric  lava-flood,  perhaps. 

The  coast,  from  the  head  of  Cross*  Sound  to  Fairweather,  is  not 
sandy,  but  may  be  well  described  as  the  surf-beaten  base  of  a  frozen 
range  of  magnificent  Alpine  peaks. 

In  the  centre  of  the  arc  of  this  grand  crescent-range  is  the 
superb  body  and  hoary  crest  of  Mount  St.  Elias,  which  is,  save 
Mount  Wrangel,  now  known  to  be  the  loftiest  peak  on  the  North 
American  coast ;  the  latter  is  slightly  higher.  Triangulated  from  a 
base  line  in  Yakootat,  in  1874,  by  one  *  of  the  most  accomplished 
mathematicians  of  the  U.  S.  Coast  Survey,  the  summit  of  that  royal 
mountain  was  determined  to  be  more  than  nineteen  thousand  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  tide  at  the  observer's  feet.  It  was  under  the 
shadow  of  this  "  bolshoi  sopka  "  that  Bering  first  saw  the  Continent 
of  North  America  on  the  18th  of  July,  1741,  and  undoubtedly  he 
discerned  it  from  a  long  distance,  ere  his  boat  landed.  Two  days 
before  anchoring,  he  records  the  fact  that  "  the  country  had  ter- 
rible high  mountains,  which  were  covered  with  snow." 

When  he  finally  landed  (it  was  St.  Elias'  day),  near  a  point  that 
he  named  as  he  named  the  lofty  central  peak,  Cape  St.  Elias,  he 
found  the  temporary  summer-houses  of  a  band  of  natives ;  those 
people  themselves  had  fled  in  terror  from  an  unwonted  invasion, 
but  the  Russians  soon  had  reason  to  regret  their  subsequent  better 
understanding. 

After  the  storm  which  parted  Bering,  early  in  June,  from  the 
company  of  the  second  vessel  of  his  expedition,  he  had  hoped  to 
fall  in  with  her  ever  afterward,  and  while  eagerly  scanning  the 
coast  and  horizon  about  him  for  some  sign  of  his  lost  comrades,  the 
hand  of  fate  caused  him  to  turn  to  the  northward,  when,  had  his 
helm  been  set  south,  he  would  have  met  the  object  of  his  search. 
For  the  other  vessel,  the  St.  Paul,  had  proceeded  on  its  solitary 

*  Marcus  Baker.  Unfortunately  no  one  connected  with  this  Coast  Sur- 
vey Party  was  able  to  make  an  adequate  drawing  of  the  mountains,  and  it  was 
so  enveloped  in  clouds  as  to  be  partially  invisible  when  the  author  cruised  un- 
der its  lee. 


74  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

course,  and  anxiously  sought  the  commander,  until  it,  too,  had 
sighted  this  same  coast,  three  days  earlier  than  had  its  storm- 
separated  consort.  Tschericov  came  to  anchor  off  some  distance 
from  "  steep  and  rocky  cliffs  "*  in  "lat.  56°,"  July  15.  Weary  and 
expectant,  the  captain  sent  his  mate  with  the  long-boat  and  a  crew 
of  ten  or  twelve  of  his  best  men  away  to  the  shore  for  the  purpose 
of  inquiry  and  for  a  fresh  supply  of  water.  The  ship's  boat  dis- 
appeared behind  the  point  sheltering  a  small  wooded  inlet ;  it  and 
its  men  were  never  seen  again  by  their  shipmates.  Troubled  in 
mind,  but  thinking  that  the  surf,  perhaps,  had  stove  the  boat  in 
landing,  the  captain  sent  his  boatswain  in  the  dingy  with  five  men 
and  two  carpenters,  all  well  armed,  to  furnish  the  necessary  assist- 
ance. The  small  boat  disappeared  also,  and  it,  too,  was  never  seen 
again.  At  the  same  time  a  great  smoke  was  constantly  ascending 
from  the  shore.  Shortly  afterward  two  huge  canoes,  filled  with 
painted,  yelling  savages,  paddled  out  from  the  recesses  of  the  bay, 
and  lying  at  some  distance  from  the  ship,  all  howled,  in  standing 
chorus,  "  Agai — agai !  "  then,  flourishing  their  rude  arms,  they 
rapidly  returned  to  the  shore.  Sorrowfully  the  disturbed  and  dis- 
tressed Tschericov  turned  his  ship's  course  about  and  hurried  home,f 
not  knowing  the  fate  of  his  men,  unable  to  help  them,  and,  to  this 
day,  no  authentic  inkling  of  what  became  of  these  Slavonian  sea- 
men has  ever  been  produced.  Unquestionably,  they  were  tortured 
and  destroyed. 

The  rains  caught  in  the  ship's  sails  filled  the  casks  of  the 
Saint  Paul,  since  Tschericov,  deprived  of  his  boats  and  thoroughly 
alarmed,  made  no  further  attempts  to  land  ;  but  he  had  not  the 
faintest  idea  of  the  presence,  at  that  moment,  of  his  superior  officer 
in  the  same  waters,  and  only  a  few  leagues  to  the  northward,  who 
also,  like  himself  was  eagerly  looking  for  his  storm-parted  consort. 
What  a  most  remarkable  voyage,  this  voyage  of  the  discovery  of 

*  That  point,  most  likely,  was  Kruzov  Island,  and  the  bay  into  which 
the  unhappy  Russians  were  decoyed  was  Klokachev  Gulf.  This  island  forms 
the  western  shore  of  Sitka  Sound. 

f  He  reached  Kamchatka  on  the  9th  October  following,  with  only  forty- 
nine  survivors  out  of  his  original  crew  of  seventy.  Bering  never  did  ;  he  was 
shipwrecked  and  died  on  a  bleak  island,  of  the  Commander  group,  December 
8,  1741.  They  seem  to  have  really  sailed  over  this  course  of  six  thousand 
miles  almost  together,  anxiously  searching  for  each  other,  yet  unconscious  of 
their  proximity. 


THE   ALPINE  ZONE   OF   MOUNT   ST.    ELIAS.  75 

the  Alaskan  region — what  a  chapter  of  disappointment,  of  hardship, 
and  of  death ! 

That  bluffy  sea-wall  which  forms  a  face  to  the  low  coast  pla- 
teau at  the  feet  of  the  St.  Elias  Alps  is  cut  by  no  great  river,  nor 
indented  by  any  noteworthy  gulf  or  inlet,  except  at  Yakootat  Bay. 
Here  a  succession  of  precipitous  glaciers  sweep  down  from  the  lofty 
cradles  of  their  birth  to  the  waters  of  the  sea,  making  an  icy  cliff  of 
more  than  fifteen  miles  in  breadth,  where  it  breaks  in  constant  rever- 
beration and  repetition.  At  the  mouth  of  Copper  River  all  silt  car- 
ried down  from  old  eroded  glacial  paths  has  been  deposited  for  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  years,  until  a  big  deltoid  chart  of  sea- water 
channels  in  muddy  relief  of  bank  and  shoal  has  been  formed,  and 
through  which  the  flood  of  an  ice-chilled  river  takes  its  rapid 
course. 

The  gloomy,  savage  wildness  of  this  region  of  supreme  moun- 
tainous elevation,  with  its  vast  gelid  sheets  and  precipitous  canons, 
its  sombre  forests  and  eternal  snows,  all  as  yet  wholly  unexplored, 
and  only  faintly  appreciated  as  we  can  from  the  remote  distance 
of  shipboard  observation — this  region  cannot  remain  much  longer 
untrodden  by  the  geologist  and  the  naturalist,  while  the  artist  must 
accompany  them  if  an  adequate  presentation  is  ever  to  be  given  of 
its  weird,  titanic  realities. 

The  Mount  St.  Elias  shore-line  is  made  up  of  small  projecting 
points,  awash.  These  alternate  with  low  cliffy  or  else  white  sandy 
beaches,  which  border  a  flat,  rolling  woodland  country  that  extends 
back  from  the  sea  ten  to  thirty  miles,  where  it  suddenly  laps  and 
rises  upon  the  lofty  flanks  of  the  Elias  Alps.  Into  the  ocean  many 
rocky  shoals  and  long  sandy  bars  stretch  for  miles,  and  streams  of 
white  muddy  glacial  or  snow  waters  rush  into  the  surf  at  frequent 
intervals — hundreds  of  them. 

There  are  sand-beaches  and  silt-shoals  which  extend  from 
Cape  Suckling,  up  seventy-five  miles  to  Hinchinbrook  Island,  that 
stands  as  a  gate-post  to  the  entrance  of  Prince  William's  Sound : 
here  is  a  long  sand-ridge  which  is  more  than  sixty  miles  in  length 
and  from  three  to  seven  miles  broad,  lying  between  the  ocean  and 
the  mainland,  which  in  turn  is  composed  of  low  wooded  uplands 
and  of  steep  abrupt  cliffs  and  hills  that  are  quickly  lost  in  the  lofty 
snowy  range  of  the  Choogatch  Alps.  Through  a  section  of  this 
dreary  sand-wall  the  impetuous  flood  of  the  Copper  or  Atna  River 
forces  its  way,  carrying  its  heavy  load  of  glacial  mud  and  silt  far 


76  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

into  the  ocean.  How  the  winds  do  blow  here !  How  the  trader 
dreads  to  tarry  "  off  and  on  "  this  coast ! 

There  are  a  few  lonely  places  in  this  world,  and  the  wastes  of  the 
great  Alaskan  interior  are  the  loneliest  of  them  all.  Those  of  Sibe- 
ria are  traversed  occasionally  by  wandering  bands,  but  those  of 
Alaska,  never.  The  severe  exigencies  of  climate  there  are  such  as 
to  substantially  eliminate  savage  life,  and  to  rear  an  impregnable 
barrier  to  that  of  civilization. 

When  Alaska  was  first  transferred,  an  estimate  of  many  thou- 
sands of  Indians  inhabiting  its  vast  interior  was  gravely  made  and 
as  gravely  accepted  by  us  ;  but  a  thorough  investigation  made  by 
our  traders  and  officers  of  our  Government  during  the  last  fifteen 
years  has  exposed  that  error.  Hundreds  only  live  where  thousands 
were  declared  to  exist.  The  Indians  who  live  on  the  banks  of  the 
Copper  River  are,  perhaps,  the  most  poverty-stricken  of  all  their 
kind  in  Alaska.  Their  shiftless  spruce-bark  rancheries  and  rude  be- 
longings are  certainly  the  most  primitive  of  their  race,  and  render 
that  weird  Russian  legend  of  the  massacre  of  Seribniekov  in  1848, 
which  declared  them  so  numerous  and  savage,  absolutely  grotesque. 
They  are  perfectly  safe  as  they  live  in  their  wild  habitat.  The  cu- 
pidity of  savage  or  civilized  man  never  has  and  never  will  molest 
them.  But  if  half  is  true  as  to  what  they  relate  of  huge  glaciers 
which  empty  into  their  river,  then  those  that  have  been  described 
in  Cross  Sound  have  formidable  rivals,  which  may  yet  prove  to  be 
superiors,  perhaps,  although  it  seems  incredible. 

The  Suchnito  or  Copper  River  has  long  been  a  bugbear,  for  the 
Russians*  years  ago  have  returned  from  several  unsuccessful  at- 

*  When  the  surveying  parties  of  the  War  Department  were  ascending  Cop- 
per River  last  summer,  certain  Indians,  who  had  been  instrumental  in  slaying 
the  Russian  party  of  Seribniekov  in  1848,  were  very  much  alarmed.  They 
were  sure  that  the  fates  had  come  for  them  at  last.  One  of  these  natives,  an 
aged  man,  now  wholly  blind,  was  reported  as  saying  that  he  was  ready  to  die, 
and  knew  what  the  white  men  wanted.  This  old  fellow,  Lieutenant  Allen 
says,  was  one  of  the  finest-looking  savages  that  he  ever  saw.  The  face  of  the 
blind  man  was  one  of  remarkable  character — a  large,  massive  head,  high 
aquiline  nose,  with  a  full,  thin-lipped  mouth  and  broad  forehead.  He  was 
totally  blind  and  his  hair  white  as  snow. 

The  Russian  party  were  sleeping  in  their  sledges,  which  they  compelled 
the  natives  to  draw  while  ascending  the  river.  At  a  preconcerted  signal  the 
unwilling  Indians  turned  and  brained  their  taskmasters  with  hatchets.  These 
natives  had  welcomed  the  Russians  ;  but  when  they  were  made  to  perform 


UJ         C 
QJ         3 


S"  s 


i  ! 
1  ^ 

si :? 


THE   ALPINE   ZONE   OF   MOUNT   ST.    ELIAS.  77 

tempts  to  ascend  it,  and  gave  the  excuse  of  being  driven  out  of  the 
valley  by  savage  and  warlike  natives.  Recently  it  has  been  thor- 
oughly explored,  and  the  "  savages  "  are  found  to  be  less  than  two 
hundred  inoffensive  natives,  who  constitute  the  whole  population  of 
this  mysterious  Atna  or  Maidnevskie  region.  But  navigating  the 
river  is  terrific  labor,  inasmuch  as  it  is  a  continuous,  swift  rapid 
throughout  its  entire  course. 

This  river  is  a  short,  turbulent,  brawling  stream,  less  than  two 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  length,  but  rising  in  the  heart  of  a  lofty 
and  mighty  mass  of  volcanic  mountains.  It  receives  a  score  of  im- 
posing glaciers,  which  almost  rival  those  of  Icy  Bay  in  Cross  Sound. 
The  silt  that  these  gelid  rivers  pour  into  its  channel  has  given  it  a 
deltoid  mouth  of  extended  and  most  intricate  area. 

Triangulations  made  by  an  officer*  of  the  Army  last  year  de- 
clare that  Mount  Wrangel  is  the  loftiest  peak  on  the  North  Ameri- 
can continent.  The  feet  of  this  magnificent  volcanic  dome  are 
washed  by  the  forks  of  Copper  River,  which  is  eighteen  thousand 
six  hundred  and  forty  feet  below  the  apex  of  its  smoking  cap. 
Then  the  river  at  this  point  is  more  than  two  thousand  feet  above 
sea-level,  so  the  vast  altitude  of  more  than  twenty  thousand  feet 
for  Mount  Wrangel  seems  to  be  truthfully  claimed. 

The  soil  which  borders  the  abrupt  banks  of  the  Copper  River  is 
entirely  composed  of  glacial  silt  and  gravel.  It  is  moist  and  boggy 
in  the  driest  seasons,  covered  with  rank  growing  grasses  and  dense 
thickets  of  poplars,  birches,  and  willows,  that  line  the  margins  of 
the  stream.  The  higher  lands,  as  they  rise  from  the  narrow  valley, 
are  in  turn  clothed  with  a  dense  growth  of  spruce-forest,  which 
gradually  fades  out  into  russet-colored  areas  of  rock-sphagnum  as 
the  altitude  increases  to  that  point  where  nothing  but  the  cold  and 
frost-defying  lichen  can  cling  alive  to  the  weather-splintered  sum- 
mits of  alpine  heights  above. 

Fish  (salmon)  are  the  chief  reliance  of  these  natives  of  Cop- 
per River ;  they  depend  almost  wholly  upon  the  annual  running 
of  those  creatures.  The  difficulty  of  hunting  is  so  great  that  the 

the  labor  of  dogs  they  turned  upon  their  white  oppressors,  naturally.  The 
massacre  of  Seribniekov  and  his  party  in  this  manner  made  the  Indians  very 
restless  and  determined  in  their  opposition  to  further  intercourse  with  the 
Russians.  The  memory  of  hostility  has,  however,  died  out,  and  nothing  of 
the  kind  was  shown  to  our  people  last  year  as  they  charted  the  valley  and 
river.  Lieutenant  H.  T.  Allen. 


78  OUR   AKCTIC    PROVINCE. 

savage  is  content  with  shooting  a  few  mountain  sheep,  a  wandering 
moose  or  two,  and,  perhaps,  a  stray  bear  in  the  course  of  the  year. 
Also,  huckleberries  and  salmon  berries  are  abundant  on  the  sun- 
shiny slopes  of  the  high  glacial  river-terraces  during  August  and 
September. 

West  of  the  Copper  Eiver  mighty  masses  of  the  Choogatch 
Mountains  rise  directly  from  the  sea  without  any  intervening  low- 
land, save  at  three  tiny  points  upon  which  savage  man  has  hastened 
to  fix  his  abode.  Many  crests  to  this  range  on  the  north  side 
of  Prince  William's  Sound  must  have  a  mean  elevation  of  over  ten 
thousand  feet,  densely  wooded  with  semper-virent  coniferous  for- 
ests up  to  a  height  of  one  thousand  feet  above  sea-level,  and  covered 
with  everlasting  snowy  blankets  to  within  three  or  four  thousand 
feet  of  the  ocean  at  their  bases.  The  body  of  Prince  William's 
Sound  is  so  forbidding  in  its  dark  grandeur  that  even  the  stolid 
Russians  never  tired  of  narrating  its  stirring  impression  upon  their 
senses.  Although  the  interior  of  this  gulf  is  completely  landlocked, 
being  sheltered  from  the  south  by  the  islands  of  Noochek  and  Mon- 
tague, yet  it  is  by  no  means  a  safe  or  pleasant  sheet  of  water  to 
navigate,  inasmuch  as  furious  gales  and  "  woollies "  sweep  down 
upon  it  from  the  steep  mountain  sides  and  canons,  so  that,  without 
even  a  moment's  warning,  the  traveller's  craft  is  suddenly  stricken, 
and  compelled  to  instantly  run  for  shelter  under  the  lee  of  some 
one  of  the  hundreds  of  islands  and  capes  which  stud  its  waters  or 
point  its  coast.  Immense  glaciers  are  descending  from  the  cavern- 
ous inlets  of  the  northern  and  eastern  shores,  and  shedded  frag- 
ments of  ice,  large  and  small,  are  cemented  by  the  tide  into  large 
sheets,  which  are  finally  swept  out  and  lost  in  the  ocean. 

The  shores  of  these  canals  are  formed  of  high,  stupendous  moun- 
tains that  rise  abruptly  from  the  water's  edge  perpendicularly,  and 
often  overhanging.  The  dissolving  snow  upon  their  summits  gives 
rise  to  thousands  upon  thousands  of  little  cataracts,  which  fall  with 
great  impetuosity  down  their  seamed  sides  and  over  sheer  and  rug- 
ged precipices.  This  fresh  water,  clear  as  crystal  and  cold  as  win- 
ter, thus  descending  into  the  green  and  blue  salt  sea,  changes  that 
tone  to  one  of  a  strange  whitish  hue  in  its  vicinity,  as  it  also  does 
in  many  fiords  of  the  Sitkan  region.  This  peculiar  flood  always 
arrests  attention  and  excites  the  liveliest  curiosity  in  the  mind  of 
him  who  beholds  it  for  the  first  time.  Everywhere,  save  to  the 
southward,  mountains  can  be  seen  looming  up  in  the  background 


VALDES   GLACIER 

View  at  the  head  of  Valdes  Inlet,  Prince  William's  Sound  :  typical  study  of  hundreds 
of  such  gelid  rivers  which  discharge  into  the  waters  of  this  gloomy  sound.  A  September 
sketch,  made  at  low-tide 


THE   ALPINE  ZONE    OF   MOUNT  ST.    ELIAS.  79 

with  snowy  peaks  and  guttered  ridges,  and  they  attest  the  wild 
legends  of  their  sullen  grandeur  which  the  first  white  men  related 
who  ever  beheld  them.  These  hardy  sailors,  when  sent  out  in 
the  ship  Three  Saints  from  Kadiak,  in  1788,  arrived  in  the  Gulf  of 
Choogatch,  or  this  Sound  of  Prince  William,  during  the  month  of 
May.  They  anchored  in  a  little  bay  of  Noochek  Island,  and  there 
established  a  trading-station.  This  is  the  only  post,  Fort  Constan- 
tine,  or  "Noochek,"  that  has  ever  been  located  by  our  people  in  all 
this  section  of  a  vast  wilderness  ;  to-day  it  is  but  little  changed — a 
couple  of  trading-stores  standing  on  the  foundations  of  Ismailov's  * 
erection,  in  which  the  only  three  white  men  now  known  to  reside 
in  all  that  region  of  alpine  wonder  are  living,  surrounded  by  a 
small  village  of  sixty  natives. 

The  large  size  of  those  spruce-trees  on  the  southern  slopes  of 
Kenai  Peninsula,  Montague,  and  Noochek  Islands  of  Prince  Will- 
iam's Sound,  so  impressed  the  Kussians  that  they  established  a 
shipyard  at  Kesurrection  Bay  as  early  as  1794  ;  by  the  close  of  that 
year  they  actually  built  and  launched  a  double-decker,  73  feet  long 
by  23  feet  beam,  of  180  tons  burden — the  first  three-masted,  full- 
rigged  ship  ever  constructed  on  the  west  coast  of  the  North  Ameri- 
can continent ;  she  was  named  the  Phoenix,  and  as  she  slid  from  her 
ways  into  the  unruffled  waters  of  this  far-away  place  the  exultation 
and  delighted  plaudits  f  of  her  builders  echoed  in  strange  discord 
with  the  wild  surrounding.  Baranov  had  no  paint  or  even  tar,  so  that 
this  pioneer  ship  was  covered  with  a  coat  of  spruce-gum,  ochre, 
and  whale-oil.  A  few  small  vessels  only  were  built  after  this,  inas- 
much as  the  company  found  it  much  more  economical  to  purchase  in 
European  yards  the  sailing-craft  and  steamers  which  it  was  obliged 
to  employ :  but,  to-day  the  traces  of  the  Eussian  ship-carpenter's 


*  Ivan  Ismailov  and  Gayorgi  Bochorov  ;  they  went  in  the  dual  capacity  of 
explorers  and  traders,  lured  into  the  undertaking  by  rumors  which  had  pre- 
vailed at  Kadiak  respecting  great  numbers  of  sea-otters  in  this  bay. 

f  Had  these  enthusiastic  builders  then  been  able  to  have  foreseen  the 
tragedy  which  this  vessel  precipitated,  five  years  later,  they  would  have  scarcely 
thus  expressed  themselves,  but  rather  have  stood  in  silence,  with  bowed  heads, 
as  the  work  of  their  hands  swept  into  the  flood  that  embraced  her.  In  1799 
she  sailed  from  the  Okotsk,  bound  for  Sitka,  with  the  newly-ordained  Bishop 
Joasaph  and  twenty  priests  and  deacons  of  the  Greek  Church;  she  was  never 
seen  or  heard  of  afterward,  nor  was  anything  seen  or  heard  of  her  passengers 
and  crew— she  took  them  with  her  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 


80  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

axe  can  be  still  plainly  recognized  at  many  points  of  the  western 
coast  of  the  sound,  and  on  Montague  Island  huge  logs,  as  roughed 
out  nearly  a  full  century  ago,  are  lying  now,  as  they  lay  then, 
slightly  decayed  in  many  instances  ;  the  anticipation  which  felled 
them  was  never  realized,  and  they  have  never  been  disturbed  con- 
sequently. 

In  these  early  colonial  Alaskan  days,  Fort  St.  Constantine,  or 
Noochek  Island,  was  a  very  important  trading-centre  ;  it  was  visited 
by  all  the  tribes  living  on  the  Mount  St.  Elias  sea-wall  to  the 
eastward  as  far  as  Yakootat,  and  also  by  the  Copper  Indians. 
Then  the  sea-otter  was  abundant,  and  in  its  ardent  chase  those 
Choogatch  savages  captured,  incidentally,  large  numbers  of  black 
and  brown  bears,  marten,  and  mink.  Now,  with  the  practical  ex- 
termination of  the  sea-otter,  we  find  a  very  poor  lot  of  natives  at 
this  once  flourishing  post ;  but,  for  the  means  of  a  simple  phys- 
ical existence,  they  have  no  lack  of  an  abundant  supply  of  salmon, 
seal-blubber  and  flesh — meat  of  the  marmot,  porcupine,  and  bear, 
varied  by  the  frequent  killing  of  mountain  sheep,  which  are  found 
all  over  this  alpine  range  ;  fine  foxes  are  plentiful  too. 

These  Indians  live  in  houses  partly  underground,  which  we  shall 
describe  as  we  visit  Kadiak,  and  in  purely  race-characteristics  those 
people  also  closely  resemble  the  Kadiak  Eskimo.  From  the  north  of 
the  Copper  River,  however,  toward  the  Sitkan  archipelago,  the 
Koloshian  or  Thlinket  is  dominant  in  the  form  and  features  of 
those  savages  which  we  find  in  a  few  small  and  widely  separated 
villages  that  exist  on  the  narrow  table-land  between  the  high 
mountains  and  the  unbroken  swell  of  the  ocean.  These  natives  all, 
however,  agree  in  describing  their  country  as  an  excellent  hunting- 
ground,  well  timbered,  and  traversed  by  numerous  small  streams 
which  take  their  rise  in  the  glaciers  and  eternal  snows  of  the  St. 
Elias  Alps. 

By  some  happy  dispensation  of  the  Creator  every  savage  is  so 
constituted  that  here  in  Alaska,  at  least,  he  believes  in  his  own  par- 
ticular area  of  existence  as  the  very  best  'realm  of  the  earth — he 
becomes  homesick  and  refuses  to  be  comforted  if  taken  to  Cali- 
fornia or  Oregon,  enters  into  a  slow  decline,  and  soon  dies  if  not 
returned  to  the  dreary  spot  of,  his  birth — a  sad  illustration  of  fatal 
nostalgia. 

An  Alaskan  Indian  or  Innuit  has  very  little  of  what  may  be 
styled  true  slavish  superstition ;  certainly  he  is  credulous,  but  he 


THE   ALPINE   ZONE   OF   MOUNT   ST.    ELIAS.  81 

rather  encourages  it  for  the  sake  of  the  romance.  He  gives  slight 
attention  to  augurs  or  omens  ;  he  ventures  out  in  search  of  food 
alike  under  all  sorts  of  varying  conditions  of  health  and  weather  ;  he 
has  a  few  charms  or  amulets,  but  does  not  surrender  to  them  by 
any  means.  Shamans,  or  sorcerers,  never  have  had  the  influence 
with  him  that  they  have  exerted  in  the  barbarism  of  our  own  ances- 
try, and  which  they  possess  among  the  savages  of  Central  and  South 
America  and  Africa  to-day.  It  is  no  solution  of  this  difference  in 
disposition  to  call  him  stupid,  for  it  is  not  true  ;  he  is  far  more 
alert,  mentally,  than  the  ghost-ridden  Australian,  or  fetich-slave  of 
Africa  ;  and,  again,  the  sun-worshipping  and  intensely  superstitious 
Incas  were  far  superior,  intellectually,  to  him. 

Most  of  the  Innuits  give  hardly  a  thought  to  the  subject,  yet 
they  are  exceedingly  vivacious  and  social  among  themselves  ;  much 
more  so  than  the  Indians.  They  relate  a  great  many  supernatural 
stories,  but  it  is  only  in  amusement,  and  it  seldom  ever  provokes 
serious  attention. 


CHAPTEE  Y. 

COOK'S  INLET  AND  ITS  PEOPLE. 

Cook's  "Great  River." — The  Tide-rips,  and  their  Power  in  Cook's  Inlet. — 
The  Impressive  Mountains  of  the  Inlet.  — The  Glaciers  of  Turnagain  Canal. 
— Old  Russian  Settlements. — Kenai  Shore  of  the  Inlet,  the  Garden-spot 
of  Alaska. — Its  Climate  best  Suited  to  Civilized  Settlement. — The  Old 
"Colonial  Citizens"  of  the  Russian  Company. — Small  Shaggy  Siberian 
Cattle. — Burning  Volcano  of  Ilyamna. — The  Kenaitze  Indians. — Their 
Primitive,  Simple  Lives. — They  are  the  Only  Native  Land-animal  Hunt- 
ers of  Alaska. — Bears  and  Bear  Roads. — Wild  Animals  seek  Shelter  in 
Volcanic  Districts. — Natives  Afraid  to  Follow  Them. — Kenaitze  Archi- 
tecture.— Sunshine  in  Cook's  Inlet. — Splendid  Salmon. — Waste  of  Fish 
as  Food  by  Natives. — The  Pious  Fishermen  of  Neelshik. — Russian  Gold- 
mining  Enterprise  on  the  Kaknoo,  1848-55. — Failure  of  our  Miners  to 
Discover  Paying  Mines  in  this  Section. 

THAT  volcanic  energy  and  amazing  natural  variation  of  the  region 
known  as  Cook's  Inlet,  and  the  Peninsula  of  Alaska,  endow  it 
with  a  certain  fascination  which  it  is  hard  to  adequately  define 
in  words,  and  difficult  to  portray.  The  rugged,  uninviting  bold- 
ness of  the  Kenai  Mountains  turn  us  abruptly,  after  our  departure 
at  Noochek,  to  the  southward,  where,  in  an  unbroken  frowning 
cordon  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  length,  they  bar  us  out 
from  the  waters  of  that  striking  estuary — the  greatest  on  the  north- 
west coast,  which  is  so  well  exhibited  by  the  map  to  everybody  as 
Cook's  Inlet.  But  it  is  known  only  in  name — not  by  the  faintest 
appreciation,  even,  of  its  real  character  and  of  its  strange  belong- 
ings. 

Two  and  three  hundred  miles  still  farther  north  than  Sitka  it 
does  not  in  itsejf  present  that  increased  wintry  aspect  at  any  season 
of  the  year  which  would  be  most  naturally  looked  for — but  it  does 
offer,  in  physical  contour  and  phenomena,  a  most  marked  contrast 
to  the  Alexander  archipelago  and  its  people.  It  is  an  exceedingly 
dangerous  and  difficult  arm  of  the  sea  to  navigate,  and  prompts  an 


COOK'S   INLET   AND   ITS   PEOPLE.  83 

involuntary  thought  of  admiration  for  the  nautical  genius,  skill,  and 
courage  of  Captain  Cook,  who  sailed  up  to  the  very  head  of  this 
entirely  unknown  gulf,  in  1778,  seeking  that  mythical  northwest 
passage  round  the  continent — his  dauntless  exploration  to  the  utter 
limit  of  Turnagain  Canal — his  extraordinary  retreat  in  his  clumsy 
ships,  and  safe  threading  of  his  way  out  and  through  the  hundreds 
of  then  absolutely  nameless  and  chartless  islets  and  reefs  to  the 
shoals  of  Bering  Sea — all  this,  viewed  to-day,  seems  simply  marvel- 
lous, that  he  should  have  escaped  all  these  dangers  which  the  best 
sailor  now  hesitates  to  undertake,  even  with  excellent  courses  laid 
down  and  determined  for  him. 

The  ship's  entrance  to  this  great  land-locked  gulf,  which  the 
Russians  named,  for  many  years,  the  Bay  of  Kenai,  lies  between 
the  extreme  end  of  that  peninsula  called  Cape  Elizabeth,  and  Cape 
Douglas,  which  is  a  bold  promontory  jutting  out  from  the  Alaskan 
mainland.  Nearly  half-way  between  the  two  points  is  a  group  of 
bleak,  naked  islets,  the  Barren  Islands  :  around  them  the  tide-rips 
of  this  channel,  which  they  obstruct,  boil  in  savage  fury,  and  are  the 
dread  of  every  navigator,  civilized  or  Innuit,  who  is  brought  near 
to  them  ;  these  violent  and  irregular  tidal  currents  here,  even  in 
perfectly  calm  weather,  will  toss  the  waters  so  that  the  wildest  fury 
of  a  tempest  elsewhere  cannot  raise  so  great  a  disturbance  over  the 
sea,  or  one  which  will  so  quickly  wash  a  vessel  under. 

When  your  ship,  bound  in,  passes  this  Alaskan  "Hell  Gate," 
she  enters  into  a  broad  and  ample  expanse  of  water  caused  by  the 
widening  effect  of  two  large  bays  which  are  just  opposed  to  each 
other  on  the  opposite  shores.  The  coast  of  the  Kenai  Peninsula  is 
low,  the  mountains  contiguous  are  not  high,  though  toward  the 
interior  the  ridges  become  much  loftier ;  but  everywhere  between 
them  and  this  coast-line  is  that  characteristic  marshy  tundra  of  the 
Arctic — a  low,  flat,  broad  strip,  varying  in  width  from  forty  to 
fifty  miles,  through  which  sluggishly  flow  a  multitude  of  streams 
and  brooks,  wooded  with  birch,  poplar,  and  spruce  everywhere  on 
the  banks,  but  bare  of  timber  over  the  great  bulk  of  its  expanse. 
As  the  inlet  contracts  still  further,  especially  at  the  point  between 
the  two  headlands  of  East  and  "West  Foreland,  the  tide  again  in- 
creases in  velocity  and  violence  of  action  until  it  attains  a  speed  of 
eight  and  nine  knots  an  hour,  with  an  average  vertical  rise  and  fall 
of  twenty-four  to  twenty-six  feet.  The  northeastern  extremity  of 
this  large  arm  of  the  sea,  which  Cook  entered  with  the  confident 


84  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

hope  of  finding  a  watery  circuit  of  a  continent,  and,  being  disap. 
pointed,  applied  to  it  the  name  of  "Turnagain,"  presents  a  tidal 
phenomena  equal  to  that  so  well  recognized  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy. 
Here  the  tide  comes  in  with  a  thundering  roar,  raising  a  "  bore  " 
wave  that  advances  like  an  express  train  in  rapidity,  carrying  every- 
thing before  it  in  its  resistless  onward,  upward  sweep.  High 
banks  of  clay  and  gravel,  which  at  low-tide  seem  as  though  they 
were  far  removed  from  submersion,  are  flooded  instantly,  to  remain 
so  until  the  ebb  takes  place.  The  natives  never  fail  to  remember 
the  angry  warning  of  this  incoming  tide  ;  they  always  hurriedly 
rush  out  of  their  huts,  scan  quickly  everything  surrounding,  lest 
some  utensil,  some  canoe,  or  basket-weir  be  thoughtlessly  left 
within  the  remorseless  rush  of  that  swift-coming  flood. 

Those  glacial  sheets  which  fill  countless  ravines  and  canons  in  the 
mountain  ridges  at  the  head  of  Cook's  Inlet,  especially  of  Turnagain 
Canal,  and  avalanches  of  snow,  from  their  lofty  cradles  thereon,  all 
sweep  down  together  upon  the  wooded  flanks  below,  and  are  thus 
destroying  great  belts  of  forest  and  piling  up  innumerable  heaps  of 
rocky  debris  to  such  an  extent  as  to  often  change  the  superficial 
aspect  of  an  entire  section  of  country  from  season  to  season  ;  mean- 
while the  tide  rushing  up  and  down  over  this  drift  of  avalanches 
and  glaciers,  carries  the  debris  hither  and  thither,  so  as  to  con- 
stantly alter  the  channels,  and  the  very  outlines  of  the  coast  itself. 

One  of  the  oldest  and  best  of  Russian  posts  was  early  estab- 
lished on  the  Kenai  Peninsula,  a  few  miles  to  the  southward  of  that 
narrowing  of  Cook's  Inlet,  caused  by  the  two  Forelands.  On  the 
low  banks  of  the  Kinik  River,  and  facing  the  gulf,  the  ruins  of  the 
"Redoubt  St.  Nicholas"  are  still  to  be  plainly  seen,  though  at  the 
time  of  the  transfer  of  the  Territory,  this  old  post  was  yet  fortified 
with  a  high  stockade  and  octagonal  bastions.  But  both  stockade 
and  bastions  have  disappeared  since  then  ;  a  number  of  new  frame 
buildings  have  been  erected  close  by,  and  quite  a  colony  of  Russian 
half-breeds  are  living  here  now,  trading,  and  growing,  to  better  ad- 
vantage than  anywhere  else  in  Alaska,  fair  crops  of  potatoes  and 
turnips.  They  keep  a  few  hardy  cattle,  and  it  is  said  that  as  much 
as  ten  or  twelve  acres  of  ground  are  under  cultivation  by  them. 

The  aspect  of  the  country  surrounding  this  settlement  is  much 
more  suggestive  of  farming  and  cattle-raising  than  is  that  presented 
anywhere  else  in  the  Alaskan  Territory.  The  land  is  rolling  and 
hilly,  the  higher  eminences  being  covered  with  thick  spruce  forests  ,• 


COOK'S   INLET   AND   ITS   PEOPLE.  85 

but  as  you  advance  into  the  interior,  great  swamps  of  tangled 
heather,  fir,  jungle,  and  sphagnum  are  prevalent.  The  soil  every- 
where, not  covered  with  grass  and  forest,  is  mossy,  with  a  little 
grass  and  many  bushes.  The  trees  are  large,  fifty  to  sixty  feet 
high,  and  eighteen  inches  to  twenty-four  in  diameter,  mostly  spruce 
—no  cedar  or  hemlock.  That  district  adjoining  the  East  Foreland 
Head  is,  perhaps,  the  best  with  reference  to  dry,  fertile  soil,  for,  in 
its  vicinity,  there  are  broad  plains  where  wild  timothy  and  red- 
top  grasses  grow  to  the  height  of  your  waist  and  shoulders.  An 
extended  experience  of  the  Russians  taught  them  to  locate  their 
agricultural  operations  here  ;  that  the  coast-line  belt  of  the  Kenai 
Peninsula,  between  the  Forelands  and  Kooshiemak  Bay,  a  belt  of 
low  and  semi-prairie  uplands  some  eighty  miles  in  length,  and  vary- 
ing in  depth  from  ten  to  twenty,  was  the  most  eligible  base  of 
agricultural  effort  afforded  anywhere  in  Alaska,  the  quality  of  the 
crops  always  being  best  near  the  coast,  the  soil  being  drier,  and  the 
danger  of  little  nipping  summer-frosts  wholly  abated. 

The  several  small  settlements  which  we  find  upon  this  pastoral 
strip  to-day  have  a  curious  history,  as  to  the  origin  of  their  inhabi- 
tants. About  the  period  of  1836-38,  the  expenses  of  the  Russian 
American  Company  in  maintaining  their  trading  stations  in  Alaska 
were  increasing  to  an  alarming  degree,  while  the  receipts  remained 
stationary,  or  fell  off.  An  enquiry  into  its  cause  revealed  it.  The 
fact  was,  that  hundreds  of  superannuated  employes  were  drawing 
their  salaries  and  subsistence,  rendering  no  adequate  return  for 
the  same.  These  persons  had  grown  old,  and  had  lost  their  health 
in  serving  the  company  ;  were,  nearly  all  of  them,  infirm  survivors 
of  Shellikov  and  Baranov's  parties,  whose  daring  and  energy  had 
established  the  company.  It  would  be  inhuman  to  discharge  these 
aged  and  crippled  Russians,  and  throw  them  upon  their  own  re- 
sources in  such  a  region.  After  much  deliberation  the  company 
was  authorized  by  the  Crown  to  make  the  following  terms  of  settle- 
ment and  relief,  and  thus  locate  them  as  permanent  pensioners  and 
settlers  in  the  country.  Therefore  all  of  the  old  employes  who  had 
married  or  lived  with  native  or  half-breed  women,  and  who  were 
unable  to  successfully  engage  in  the  trading  avocations  of  the  com- 
pany, by  reason  of  age  and  other  infirmities,  were,  upon  their  writ- 
ten or  witnessed  request,  after  being  stricken  from  the  pay-rolls, 
provided  for  in  this  manner. 

The  company  was  obliged  to  select  and  donate  a  piece  of  ground, 


86  OUR  AKCTIC   PROVINCE. 

build  a  comfortable  dwelling,  furnish  agricultural  tools,  seeds,  cat- 
tle and  fowls,  and  supply  the  pensioner  receiving  all  this  with  pro- 
visions enough  to  support  him  and  his  wife  for  one  year.  These 
"old  colonial  citizens"  (as  they  were  called),  thus  established,  were 
then  exempted  from  all  taxation,  military  duty,  or  molestation 
whatsoever,  and  a  list  of  their  names  was  annually  forwarded  in  the 
reports  of  the  company.  The  children  of  those  settlers  were  at  lib- 
erty to  enter  or  not,  as  they  pleased,  the  service  of  the  company  at 
stated  salaries.  The  company,  furthermore,  was  commanded  to  pur- 
chase all  the  surplus  produce  of  these  pensioners,  furs,  and  dried 
fish,  etc.  This  order  of  the  Crown,  thus  fixing  the  status  of  those 
old  servants,  also  included  the  half-breeds  who  were  equally  infirm 
by  reason  of  such  service.  Such  whites,  or  Russians,  were  officially 
designated  "colonial  citizens,"  the  half-breeds  were  styled  "  colonial 
settlers." 

The  descendants  of  these  pensioned  servants  of  the  Russian 
Company  are  the  men  and  women  you  observe  to-day  in  those  little 
hamlets  scattered  along  the  east  coast  of  Cook's  Inlet,  or  the  Kenai 
Peninsula.  They  are  bright,  clean,  and,  though  very,  very  poor, 
still  appear  wholly  independent.  They  are  engaged  in  small  trad- 
ing with  the  Kenai tze  savages  and  in  their  limited  agricultural 
efforts,  whereby  they  have  potatoes,  turnips,  and  other  hardy  vege- 
tables. The  cattle,  of  which  they  have  a  few  in  each  settlement, 
are  of  the  small,  shaggy  Siberian  breed,  not  much  larger  than 
Shetland  ponies,  and  capable  of  living  in  the  rigors  of  a  winter 
which  would  destroy  or  permanently  injure  our  breeds  of  neat  cat- 
tle. These  people  make  butter  by  laboriously  shaking  the  milk  in 
bottles. 

They  are  obliged  to  shelter  their  cattle  during  winters  from 
the  driving  fury  of  heavy  snow-storms,  and  when  the  herd  ranges 
in  the  grass-season,  the  boys  and  old  men  always  have  to  guard  it 
from  the  deadly  attention  of  the  big  brown  bears  which  infest  the 
entire  region.  They  have  a  regular  "  round-up  "  in  each  hamlet 
every  night. 

Everywhere  on  the  west  coast  of  Cook's  Inlet  the  mountains  rise 
steeply  and  rugged  from  the  sea,  a  wild  and  uninviting  contrast 
with  the  park-like  terraces  of  the  Kenai  coast  just  opposite.  Here 
are  the  same  lofty  ridges  and  smoking  peaks  which  startled  and 
oppressed  the  brave  heart  of  Captain  Cook,  as  they  muttered  and 
trembled  in  volcanic  throes  when  he  sailed  by.  The  two  cones 


•  r 


COOK'S   INLET  AND   ITS   PEOPLE.  87 

which  rise  dominant  are  the  summits  of  Mount  Hyamna  and  the 
"  Redoute,"  from  which  columns  of  brownish  smoke  ascend  by 
day  and  ruddy  fire-glowings  by  night  So  precipitous  is  this  main- 
land shore  of  Cook's  Inlet  that  at  only  two  small  points  of  the  most 
limited  area  is  there  any  low  land  to  be  found,  and  these  spots 
have  been  promptly  utilized  by  the  Kenaitze  Indians  as  sites  for 
their  villages  of  Toyonok  and  Kustatan.  The  dense,  sombre  coni- 
ferous forest  which  we  have  become  so  familiar  with,  clothes  the 
flanks  of  those  grim  mountain  walls  with  the  thickest  of  all  cover- 
ings to  a  height  of  one  thousand  feet  above  the  beaches  below. 
Here  and  there  we  glance  into  the  recesses  of  a  canon  or  a  gorge 
where  the  naked,  mossy  surface  of  immense  rocky  declivities  ar- 
rests and  fixes  the  eye,  while  the  glittering  caps  of  ice  and  snow 
far  away  above  fit  down  snugly  upon  long,  rough,  treeless  intervals, 
covered  with  heather,  lichens,  and  varied  arctic  sphagnum. 

The  upper  waters  of  Cook's  Inlet  are  said  to  be  quite  remarka- 
ble for  their  barrenness  of  fish — salmon  only  being  plenty  in  the 
running  season,  ascending  all  the  numerous  rivers  and  rivulets  ;  the 
reason  most  likely  is  due  to  the  turbid  upheaval  of  the  bottoms 
everywhere  by  that  violent  tidal  bore  which  prevails,  recurring 
twice  every  twenty-four  hours.  The  Indians  here  employ  a  curious 
trestle  or  staging  of  poles,  which  they  use  in  spearing  salmon,  and 
netting  them  from  its  support. 

An  extensive  spread  of  the  largest  fresh-water  lake  in  Alaska 
just  over  the  divide  from  Cook's  Inlet,  early  led  the  Russians  to  ex- 
plore it,  and  to  find  a  portage  via  its  waters  to  the  sea  of  Be- 
ring. But,  though  this  barrier  can  be  passed  by  an  active  man  in  a 
single  day,  yet  it  has  divided,  and  continues  to  absolutely  separate, 
two  distinct  races  of  savages — the  Innuits  from  the  Indians  ;  for 
the  Kenaitze  are  Indians,  as  we  understand  them,  based  upon  our 
types  of  the  great  plains  and  foot-hills  of  the  Rocky  Mountains ; 
and,  living  here  as  they  do  on  the  shores  of  Cook's  Inlet,  they  live, 
perhaps,  in  the  most  romantic  and  picturesque  region  of  Alaska. 
Burning  volcanoes,  smoking  and  grumbling,  a  large  inland  sea  roll- 
ing for  miles  and  miles  therein,  and  lay  at  their  feet ;  wide  watery 
moors,  tundra,  timber  and  lakes,  and  rivers  rising  in  the  snow-white 
peaks  everywhere  visible,  all  combine  to  make  the  most  striking 
lights  and  shades  of  natural  scenery  that  human  thought  can  real- 
ize in  fancy. 

These  natives  of  Cook's  Inlet  are  strongly  denned  from  those  of 


88 


OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 


Kadiak  as  a  separate  people,  both  in  language  (which  no  white  man 
has  ever  been  able  to  repeat),  in  appearance,  and  in  disposition. 
They  are  true  Athabascans,  or  exactly  like  the  meat-eating  Indians 
of  our  great  North  American  interior.  An  average  man  here  is  an 
Indian  of  medium  height,  say  five  feet  seven  or  nine  inches,  well 
built  and  symmetrical,  lithe  and  sinewy.  The  cold  glint  of  his 
small,  jet-black  eyes  is  not  relieved  by  any  expression  of  good  humor 


A  Kenaitze  Chief:  Cook's  Inlet. 

in  his  taciturn  features  and  physical  bearing.  His  nose  will  pre- 
sent, as  a  rule,  the  full  aquiline  or  Julius  Caesar  outline.  Their 
skin  is  darker  than  that  of  the  Innuit,  though  now  and  then  a 
comely  young  person  will  show  perceptible  blood-mantlings  to  the 
cheeks.  The  mouth  is  large — lips  rather  full ;  beardless  faces  are 
the  rule.  Their  women  are  much  better-looking  than  either  the 
Si  wash  squaws  of  the  Sitkan  region,  or  the  females  of  the  Aleutian 
and  Innuit  races.  Their  hair  is  worn  in  clubbed  bunches  and 


89 

braids,  hanging  upon  their  backs,  thickly  larded  over  with  grease, 
and  often  powdered  with  feathers  and  geese-down. 

In  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  shores  of  Cook's  Inlet  the 
primitive  habits  of  these  savages  have  been  very  much  changed  by 
their  daily  intercourse  with  the  Creoles  ;  but  at  the  head  of  the 
gulf,  especially  in  the  Sooshetno  and  Keknoo  valleys,  they  are  still 
dressed  in  their  deer-skin  shirts  and  trousers,  men  and  women 
alike.  They  work  those  garments  with  a  great  variety  of  beads, 
porcupine  quills  stained  in  bright  colors,  and  grass  plaitings. 

These  Kenaitze  are  the  only  real  hunters  in  all  Alaska.  They 
place  little  or  no  dependence  on  fish  like  the  other  tribes,  unless  we 
except  the  walrus-eating  Eskimo,  who  hunt,  however,  in  water-craft 
entirely.  And  were  they  not  natural  Nimrods,  the  abundance  of 
game  which  abounds  in  their  district  would  stimulate  such  ambi- 
tion alone  in  itself.  The  brown  bear  *  of  Alaska  is  found  almost 
everywhere  ;  but  it  seems  to  prefer  an  open,  swampy  country  to  that 
dense  timber  most  favored  by  its  ursine  relative,  the  black  bear. 
It  attains  its  greatest  size,  and  exhibits  the  most  ferocity,  on  the 
Kenai  Peninsula.  It  should  be  called  the  grizzly,  because  it  is  fre- 
quently shot  here  fully  as  large,  if  not  larger, f  than  those  examples 
recorded  in  Oregon  and  California. 

This  wide-ranging  brute  is  found  away  up  beyond  the  Arctic  Cir- 
cle, though  never  coming  down  to  the  coast  of  the  icy  ocean  except 
at  Kotzebue  Sound.  It  is  a  most  expert  fisherman,  and  a  terror  to 
the  reindeer  and  cariboo  of  those  hyperborean  solitudes.  It  fre- 
quents, during  the  salmon  season,  all  the  Alaskan  rivers  and  their 
tributaries  which  empty  into  Bering  Sea  and  the  North  Pacific,  as 
far  as  the  fish  can  ascend.  When  the  run  for  the  year  is  over,  then 
the  animal  retires  into  the  thick  recesses  of  semi-timbered  uplands 
and  tundra,  where  berries  and  small  game,  deer  especially,  are 
most  abundant. 

Everywhere  throughout  this  large  extent  of  Alaska  the  foot-paths, 
or  roads,  of  that  omnipresent  ursine  traveller  arrest  your  attention. 
The  banks  of  all  streams  are  lined  by  the  well-trodden  trails  of 
these  heavy  brutes,  and  offer  far  better  facilities  for  progress  than 
those  afforded  by  the  paths  of  men.  Not  only  are  the  swampy 

*  Ursus  richardsonii. 

f  One  shot  at  Kenai  Mission  in  1880  measured  nine  feet  two  inches  in 
length. 


90 


OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 


plains  intersected  by  such  well-worn  routes  of  travel,  but  the 
mountains  themselves  and  ridges,  to  the  very  summits  thereof,  are 
thus  laid  out ;  and  the  judgment  of  a  bear  in  traversing  a  rough, 
mountainous  divide  is  always  of  the  best — his  track  over  is  sure  to 
be  the  most  practicable  route.  On  the  steep,  volcanic  uplands  of  the 
mountainous  coast  of  the  west  shore  in  Cook's  Inlet,  groups  of 
twenty,  and  even  thirty,  of  these  huge  bears  can  be  seen  together 
feeding  upon  the  berries  and  roots  which  are  found  there  in 
season.  Their  skins  are  not  valuable,  however,  being  "patched" 


Bear  "Roads"  over  the  Moors  of  Oonimak  Islands. 

and  harsh-haired.  Then  they  are  very  fierce,  so  that  they  are  not 
commonly  hunted  anywhere  except  by  the  Kenaitze,  who,  like  all 
other  aboriginal  hunters,  respect  them  profoundly,  and  invariably 
address  a  few  eulogistic  words  of  praise  to  a  bear  before  killing  or 
attempting  to  kill  it.* 

A  peculiar  dread  which  all  the  natives  of  this  region  have,  of 
visiting  those  areas  where  volcanic  energy  manifests  itself,  is  taken 
advantage  of  by  those  dumb  beasts  upon  which  the  savage  wages 
relentless  warfare  ;  the  immediate  vicinity  of  craters,  of  steaming 


*  Perhaps  fully  half  the  brown-bear  skins  taken  by  the  Alaskan  natives  are 
retained  by  them,  used  as  bedding,  and  hung  up  as  portieres  over  the  entrance- 
holes  or  doors  to  their  houses ;  the  smaller  skins  are  tanned  and  then  cut  into 
straps  and  lines  to  use  in  sledge-fastenings,  snowshoe  network  bottoms,  be- 
cause this  leather  does  not  stretch  when  moist  like  deer  and  moose  skin. 


COOK'S   INLET   AND   ITS   PEOPLE.  91 

hot  springs  and  solfataras,  will  always  be  a  rendezvous  for  game, 
especially  bears,  which  seem  to  fully  understand  that  in  staying 
there  they  will  never  be  disturbed.  But  the  Kenaitze  are  ardent 
hunters,  nevertheless,  and  spend  most  of  their  time  and  energy  in 
the  chase  of  land  animals — making  long  journeys  into  the  interior, 
and  gloomy  recesses  of  mountainous  canons  and  defiles,  to  follow 
and  find  the  fur-bearing  quarry  peculiar  to  their  country. 

They  have  regular  tracks  of  main  travel,  where,  like  stage  sta- 
tions on  our  frontier  post-roads,  at  intervals  they  have  erected 
shelter-huts,  in  which  they  often  live  with  their  families  for  months 
of  the  year  at  a  time  ;  they  make  birch-bark  canoes  for  their  river 
and  lake  transit,  but  in  navigating  Cook's  Inlet,  they  buy  skin 
bidarkas  of  the  Kadiak  model  and  use  them  altogether.  They  are 
fairly  independent  of  salt  water,  and  seldom  pass  many  hours  upon 
it,  except  in  travelling  and  trading  one  with  another,  and  the 
Creoles  ;  they  are,  however,  very  expert  at  fresh-water  fishing 
through  holes  in  the  ice  for  trout  in  the  thousand  and  one  lakes, 
large  and  small,  which  are  so  common  in  their  country.* 

As  these  natives  live  in  their  permanent  settlements,  we  find 
them  distinguished  by  a  peculiar  architecture.  Their  houses  are 
fashioned  out  of  logs,  and  set  above  ground  resting  upon  its  sur- 
face ;  the  logs  are  hollowed  out  on  one  side  so  as  to  fit  one  upon 
the  other  in  true  spoon-fashion,  and  make  a  really  air  and  water- 
tight wall ;  an  enclosure  of  these  walls  will  hardly  ever  be  larger 
than  20  feet  square,  and  most  of  them  never  go  over  12  or  15  feet ; 
they  have  regularly  laid  cross-rafters,  with  a  low,  or  half-pitch,  over 
which  spruce-bark  shells  are  so  spread  as  to  shed  rain  and  drifting 
snow  ;  these  shingle  slabs  are  kept  in  place  by  a  number  of  heavy 
poles,  lashed  transversely  across  ;  a  fireplace  is  always  in  the  cen- 
tre with  a  very  small  smoke-hole  opened  in  the  roof  just  above  it ; 


*  The  greatest  number  of  different  mammals  found  wild  in  any  one  region 
of  Alaska  is  to  be  recorded  here :  bears,  brown  and  black ;  deer,  reindeer 
and  the  woodland  cariboo  ;  big-horn  mountain  sheep,  a  long-haired  variety. 
These  animals  are  all  shot.  The  trapped  varieties  are:  beaver,  land-otter,  por- 
cupines, whistling  marmot  or  woodchuck,  large  gray  wolves,  lynx,  wolverine, 
marten,  mink,  ermine,  weasels,  and  muskrats.  Wild-fowl :  grouse  both 
white  and  ruffled,  geese,  ducks,  sandhill  cranes,  and  the  great  northern 
swan.  Berries :  whortleberries,  salmonberries,  gooseberries,  and  cranberries ; 
all  gathered  in  season  and  mixed  with  the  everlasting  rancid  oil  used  by  every 
native  in  every  section  of  Alaska. 


92  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

the  door  is  a  square  aperture  cut  through  the  logs  at  the  least  ex- 
posed front,  about  large  enough  to  easily  admit  the  ingress  and 
egress  of  a  crouching  Indian.  It  is  stopped  in  stormy  weather  by 
a  bear-skin,  hung  so  as  to  fall  directly  over  it  from  the  inside. 
When  the  door  is  thus  closed  the  naturally  dark  interior  becomes 
almost  wholly  so  ;  but  the  howling  of  a  tempest,  laden  with  rain,  sleet 
or  snow,  as  the  case  may  be,  renders  this  gloomy  indoor  perfectly 
radiant  to  the  senses  of  its  sheltered  inmates,  and  they  loll  in  robes 
and  blankets  and  doze  away  the  time  on  the  rude  wooden  platform 
which  surrounds  the  walls  and  keeps  their  bodies  from  the  cold 
damp  earth.  Upon  this  staging  they  spread  grass  mats  and  skins, 
and,  in  fact,  it  is  a  catchall  for  everything. 


The  Bedroom  Annex  of  a  Kenaitze  Rancherie. 

An  odd  feature  seen  in  some  of  the  most  pretentious  houses  of 
those  inlet  savages,  is  the  presence  of  a  little  kennel-like  bedroom 
annex,  which  many  of  the  most  wealthy  or  important  have  built  up 
against  the  main  walls.  These  boxlike  additions  are  tightly  framed 
and  joined  to  the  houses,  the  only  entrance  being  from  the  inside 
of  the  main  structure  by  a  small  hole  cut  directly  through  the 
logs  of  the  wall ;  they  are  sleeping  chambers,  and  are  furnished 
with  a  rough  plank  floor,  and  sometimes  a  window  made  of  a  piece 
of  translucent  bladder-gut.  They  are  also  reserved  and  special 
apartments  during  the  occasion  of  those  visits  of  ceremony  which 
Indians  often  pay,  one  to  each  other.  But  the  main  idea  is  to 
have  these  tight  little  dormitories  so  snug  and  warm  that  they  will 
insure  the  comfortable  rest  of  the  owner  therein  without  much 
burdensome  bed-clothing — in  many  cases  the  Kenaitze  can  sleep 


COOK'S   INLET   AND   ITS   PEOPLE.  93 

here  in  the  coldest  weather  without  any  covering  at  all,  and  do. 
Such  a  bed  is  a  great  and  priceless  luxury  to  them. 

No  furniture  annoys  the  Kenai  housekeeper,  unless  the  small 
square  blocks  of  wood  used  occasionally  as  stools  or  seats  can  be  so 
styled ;  the  grease  and  fire-boxes  which  we  have  seen  in  Sitkan 
households  are  also  duplicated  here,  but  though  made  of  wood 
they  are  not  so  neatly  put  together.  The  traders  recently  have 
introduced  a  very  novel  feature  to  the  interior  of  nearly  every 
Kenaitze  house ;  it  is  the  common,  cheap,  box-imitation,  in  minia- 
ture, of  a  Saratoga  trunk  with  lock  and  key.  Those  oddly  contrasted 
articles  will  be  found  everywhere  among  these  people,  who  keep 
in  them  all  their  valuables,  such  as  charms,  and  toys  for  the 
children,  flashy  handkerchiefs,  small  tools  fashioned  out  of  bits  of 
iron  and  steel,  bags  of  thread  and  stripped  sinews,  needles, 
ammunition,  and  their  percussion-caps,  which  are  to  them  as  pearls 
without  price — nothing  so  precious.  Outside  of  this  trunk-craze, 
and  their  odd  sleeping-rooms,  these  Indians  do  not  live  together  or 
act  differently  from  the  usual  habit  and  manner  of  savages  proper, 
so  familiar  to  us  by  reason  of  repeated  descriptions  published  of 
our  own  meat-eaters  who  live  near  by.  They  crave  nothing  from 
the  white  trader  save  powder,  lead,  good  rifles,  percussion-caps, 
tobacco,  calico,  and  the  sham  trunks  alluded  to. 

The  sun  shines  out  over  Cook's  Inlet  much  more  than  it  does 
in  the  Sitkan  region  and  the  Aleutian  Islands.  The  proportion  of 
fair,  bright  weather  is  larger  than  that  experienced  anywhere  else  in 
all  Alaska  or  its  coast.  The  winter  months  here  are  not  excessively 
cold ;  snow  falls  in  December — sometimes  as  late  as  3d  of  Jan- 
uary before  the  first  flakes  of  the  season  arrive.  By  the  first  to 
middle  of  May  it  has  usually  melted  away  on  the  lowlands,  and  the 
grass  springs  up  anew,  green  and  luxuriant.  Summer,  and  even 
winter  storms,  are  drawn  along  the  lofty  ranges  of  the  Kenai  Penin- 
sula when  all  is  serene  and  pleasant  at  the  same  time  on  the  moors 
and  lowlands  of  the  inlet  shores.  Often,  too,  the  people  of  that 
coast  can  look  up  to  a  continued  falling  of  heavy  rain  and  snow 
on  the  mountain  summits  of  the  steep  ridges  across  the  inlet,  while 
they  bask  in  unclouded  sunshine,  and  have  no  interruption  of  its 
comfort. 

We  ourselves  have  as  yet  made  but  slight  use  of  the  natural 
resources  and  advantages  of  Cook's  Inlet.  A  party  of  San  Fran- 
cisco merchants  have  established  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kassilov 


94  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

River  a  salmon  cannery,  which  has  been  worked  to  the  full  limit 
of  demand  ;  and  a  smaller,  similar  factory  is  located  at  the  head  of 
this  inlet,  in  the  Kaknoo  estuary. 

The  finest  salmon  known  to  man,  savage  or  civilized,  both  in 
flavor  and  size  combined,  is  that  giant  fish  which  runs  in  especial 
good  form  and  number  into  Cook's  Inlet,  and  which  the  Russians 
called  the  "  chowichah  ; "  *  they  are  most  abundant  during  the  sum- 
mer neap-tides,  but  they  are  not  as  numerous  as  are  the  several  other 
varieties  of  smaller  and  far  less  palatable  salmonidse,  which  also  run 
up  here  with  them.  The  average  length  of  these  superb  chowichah 
fish  is  four  feet,  and  a  weight  of  fifty  pounds  is  a  low  medium. 
They  appear  regularly  on  the  20th  and  22d  of  every  May,  running 
in  pairs,  refusing  the  hook,  though  hugging  the  shore  lines.  Our 
people  catch  them  in  floating  gill-nets,  and  in  weirs  of  brush  and 
saplings  of  wicker-work  woven  with  spruce-roots  and  bark,  which 
are  erected  on  the  mud-flats  at  the  river  mouth,  during  low  tide. 

The  king  salmon,  however,  is  erratic  in  running  to  any  one 
spawning  spot,  and  in  this  respect  differs  from  all  the  rest  of  its 
family,  which  is  remarkably  constant  in  annually  returning  to  the 
same  spawning  ground.  But  the  abundance  of  salmon  which  we  see 
in  their  reproductive  periods  of  each  year,  ascending  every  river 
and  possible  rivulet  that  communicates  with  the  sea  in  Alaska  south 
of  Bering's  Straits,  is  a  never-failing  source  of  wonder  and  de- 
light to  the  white  visitor  and  a  measure  of  infinite  creature-comfort 
to  his  physical  being  while  sojourning  here.  Also,  the  pleasant 
thought  constantly  arises  that  when  we  shall  have  a  populous  em- 
pire on  the  Pacific  slope,  as  we  have  now  in  the  Mississippi  Valley 
and  east  of  the  Alleghanies,  what  a  handsome  use  we  will  make  of 
this  waste  of  fish-food  wealth  f  which  we  now  observe  in  the  vast 


*  Oncorynchus  chouicTia — examples  of  this  species  have  a  recorded  weight 
of  one  hundred  pounds  each,  and  six  feet  in  length  ;  it  is  also  abundant  in  the 
Yukon  and  Kuskokvim  Rivers. 

f  Dr.  T.  H.  Bean,  who,  as  a  trained  ichthyologist,  passed  the  season  of 
1880  investigating  the  fish  of  Alaska  by  cruising  throughout  its  waters,  says : 

"The  greatest  fish-wealth  of  Alaska,  so  far  as  the  shore  fisheries  are  con- 
cerned, lies  in  the  abundance  of  salmon  of  the  genus  Oncorhynchus,  which  is 
represented  by  five  species — chouicJia,  beta,  kisutch,  nerka,  and  gorbuscha. 
The  first  three  of  these  are  the  largest,  the  whole  series  being  named  in  the 
order  of  their  size.  0.  chouiclia  is  the  giant  of  the  group,  and  is  the  most 
important  commercially  ;  it  attains  to  its  greatest  size  in  the  large  rivers, 


•s 


95 

realm  of  its  indulgence  throughout  Alaska.  Also  in  another,  but 
wholly  correct  sense,  the  natives  themselves  shamefully  waste  the 
flesh  of  those  fine  salmon.  To  illustrate  the  extraordinary  nature  of 
this  suggestion,  let  the  following  statements  of  fact  be  recalled : 
The  native  population  of  Cook's  Inlet  is  not  large — it  is  embraced  in 
about  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  families,  averaging  four  souls  to 
each  household  ;  everyone  of  these  families  prepares  at  least  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  to  eight  hundred  pounds  of  dried  salmon  for  its 
own  specific  consumption  during  the  winter  months.  That  amount 
of  cured  fish,  therefore,  is  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  thou- 
sand pounds,  and  as  every  pound  weight  of  dried  meat  is  equal  to 
an  original  weight  of  at  least  eight  or  nine  pounds  of  fresh,  or  un- 
dried,  then  this  cured  total  gives  us  an  immense  aggregate  of 


which  it  ascends  long  distances  in  its  spawning  season.  In  Alaska  it  is  known 
to  extend  as  far  north  as  Bering  Strait,  and  it  is  especially  abundant  in  Cook's 
Inlet  and  in  the  Yukon.  Individuals  weighing  nearly  one  hundred  pounds 
are  occasionally  reported  from  these  waters,  and  even  in  the  Columbia.  The 
finest  product  of  this  salmon  is  the  salted  bellies,  which  are  prepared  prin- 
cipally on  the  Kenai,  Kassilov,  and  Yukon  Rivers  ;  the  fame  of  this  luxury 
once  extended  to  the  centre  of  government  in  Russia.  The  well-known 
'  quinnat  salmon '  is  the  same  species  ;  its  importance,  as  evidenced  by  the 
efforts  of  the  United  States  Fish  Commission  and  other  commissions  toward 
its  propagation  and  distribution,  is  too  well  understood  to  require  additional 
mention.  The  great  bulk  of  the  salted  salmon  exported  from  Alaska  are  the 
small  'red  fish,'  0.  nerka  ;  and  this  species  is  sought  after  simply  on  account 
of  the  beautiful  color  of  the  flesh  and  not  for  its  intrinsic  value,  which  is  far 
below  that  of  most  of  the  other  species.  All  the  salmon  extend  northward  to 
Bering  Strait,  but  only  one,  (jorbuscha,  is  reported  as  occurring  north  of  the 
Arctic  Circle  ;  gorbuscha  is  said  by  trustworthy  parties  to  reach  the  Colville 
River.  In  the  early  part  of  its  run  the  flesh  of  this  little  '  humpback '  seems 
to  me  to  be  particularly  good.  Other  members  of  the  family  of  Salmonida>, 
and  very  important  ones,  are  the  species  of  Salmo  (purpuratiis  and  gairdneri) 
and  Salvelinus  malma,  two  of  which  reach  a  large  size  in  Alaska.  The  first 
two  are  not  known  to  exist  much  to  the  northward  of  Unalashka,  while  malma 
is  believed  to  extend  to  the  Colville.  S.  gairdneri  resembles  the  Atlantic 
salmon  in  size  and  shape,  but  its  habits  are  different  ;  it  is  found  filled  with 
mature  eggs  in  June.  I  have  not  seen  any  very  large  examples  of  S.  pur- 
puratus  from  the  Territory,  but  the  species  is  extremely  abundant  and  valuable 
for  food.  The  red-spotted  char,  S.  malma,  is  everywhere  plentiful  and  is 
highly  esteemed  as  a  food-fish  ;  it  grows  much  larger  in  Northern  Alaska  than 
in  California,  and  has  some  commercial  value  as  an  export  in  its  sea-ran  con- 
dition under  the  name  of  'salmon  trout.'  Natives  of  Alaska  make  water- 
proof clothing  from  the  skins  of  this  fish." 


96  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

1,000,000  pounds  of  fresh  salmon ;  this,  figured  down,  shows  that 
a  single  Indian  uses,  during  the  winter  solstice — five  months — the 
enormous  amount  of  1,430  pounds  of  this  rich-meated  article  of 
diet,  or  about  ten  pounds  every  day,  in  addition  to  the  bear-meat, 
deer,  and  sheep-meat,  seal  and  beluga  oil,  berries  and  roots  which 
he  is  constantly  consuming,  at  the  same  time,  in  the  greatest  free- 
dom, and  which  are  always  in  abundant  supply.  The  full  thought 
of  my  presentation  will  be  better  understood  when  it  is  remembered 
that  a  pound  of  fresh  salmon  has  more  nourishing  and  sustaining 
quality  than  the  same  amount  dried.  The  salt-dried  codfish  with 
which  we  are  so  familiar  is  very  different  in  its  texture,  and  weighs 
many  times  more  than  it  would  if  it  were  cured  by  the  air  and 
smoke-exposure  to  which  the  natives  of  Alaska  are  driven  in  pre- 
serving their  fish. 

An  exceedingly  happy  illustration  of  the  singular  force  of  habit 
which  the  salmon  have  in  returning  every  recurring  season  to 
the  exact  localities  of  their  birth  was  afforded  near  the  Creole  settle- 
ment of  Neelshik  on  the  Kenai  Inlet  coast.  A  small  stream  runs 
down  to  the  gulf  from  the  mountains  and  moors  of  the  interior. 
Its  mouth  had  been  closed  by  a  barrier  of  surf-raised  sand  and 
gravel  during  storms  in  the  winter  of  1879-80,  and  through  which  the 
sluggish  stream  filtered  in  its  course  without  overflowing.  When  the 
salmon,  which  had  descended  the  year  previously  from  the  upper 
waters  of  the  stream  in  the  course  of  their  reproductive  circuit, 
again  returned  to  renew  such  labors  in  the  following  season,  this 
unexpected  wall  barred  their  ingress.  They  did  not  turn  away,  but 
actually  leaped  out  upon  this  sandy  spit,  and  many  of  them  suc- 
ceeded, by  spasmodic  springs  and  wriggling,  while  on  the  dry  gravel, 
in  getting  across  and  into  the  river-water  beyond !  the  Creoles,  in 
the  meantime,  having  nothing  to  do  except  to  walk  down  from 
their  houses  and  gather  up  the  self -stranded  salmon  as  they  fancied 
their  size  and  condition.  Inasmuch  as  these  "  old  colonial  settlers  " 
are  very  pious,  as  well  as  very  indolent,  they  were  profuse  in  giving 
thanks  to  their  patron  saints  for  this  unexpected  bounty. 

The  color  of  gold  everywhere  found  by  washing  the  sands  of 
Cook's  Inlet  on  the  Kenai  shore  early  aroused  the  cupidity  of  the 
Eussians.  They  made  systematic  examinations  here  under  the  lead 
of  experienced  men,  between  1848  and  1855,  and  the  Eussian  Ameri- 
can Company  spent  a  great  deal  of  money  in  the  same  time  by  sus- 
taining a  large  force  of  forty  miners,  directed  by  Lieutenant  Doro- 


COOK'S   INLET  AND  ITS   PEOPLE.  97 

shin,  in  active  operations  at  the  head  of  the  inlet  on  the  Kaknoo 
River,  and  in  the  Kenai  Mountains  and  Prince  William  or  Choogatch 
Alps.  Gold  was  found,  but  in  such  small  quantities,  compared 
with  the  labor  of  getting  it,  that  the  ardor  of  the  Russians  soon 
cooled,  and  nothing  as  yet  has  resulted  from  the  prospecting  of  our 
own  miners  in  this  district,  who  have  been  all  over  these  Slavonian 
trails  since  the  transfer. 
7 


CHAPTER  YL 

THE  GREAT  ISLAND  OF   KADIAK. 

Kadiak  the  Geographical  and  Commercial  Centre  of  Alaska.  — Site  of  the  First 
Grand  Depot  of  the  Old  Russian  Company. — Shellikov  and  his  Remark- 
able History,  1784. — His  Subjection  of  the  Kaniags. — Bloody  Struggle. — 
He  Founds  the  First  Church  and  School  in  Alaska  at  Three  Saints  Bay, 
1786,  One  Hundred  Years  ago.— Kadiak,  a  Large  and  Rugged  Island. — The 
Timber  Line  drawn  upon  it. — Luxuriant  Growth  of  Annual  and  Biennial 
Flowering  Plants. — Reason  why  Kadiak  was  Abandoned  for  Sitka. — The 
Depot  of  the  Mysterious  San  Francisco  Ice  Company  on  Wood  Island. — Only 
Road  and  Horses  in  Alaska  there. — Creole  Ship  and  Boat  Yard. — Tough 
Siberian  Cattle.  Pretty  Greek  Chapel  at  Yealovnie.— Afognak,  the  Larg- 
est Village  of  "Old  Colonial  Citizens. "—Picturesque  and  Substantial  Vil- 
lage.— Largest  Crops  of  Potatoes  raised  here. — No  Ploughing  done  ;  Earth 
Prepared  with  Spades. — Domestic  Fowls. — Failure  of  Our  People  to  Raise 
Sheep  at  Kolma. — What  a  "Creole"  is. — The  Kaniags  or  Natives  of  Ka- 
diak; their  Salient  Characteristics.— Great  Diminution  of  their  Num- 
bers.— Neglect  of  Laws  of  Health  by  Natives. — Apathy  and  Indifference 
to  Death. — Consumption  and  Scrofula  the  Scourge  of  Natives  in  Alaska  ; 
Measles  equally  deadly. — Kaniags  are  Sea-otter  Hunters. — The  Penal 
Station  of  Ookamok,  the  Botany  Bay  of  Alaska.  — The  Wild  Coast  of  the 
Peninsula. — Water-terraces  on  the  Mountains. — Belcovsky,  the  Rich  and 
Profligate  Settlement. — Kvass  Orgies. — Oonga,  Cod-fishing  Rendezvous. — 
The  Burial  of  Shoomagin  here,  1741. — The  Coal  Mines  here  Worthless. 

THE  boldest  and  the  most  striking  cape  in  this  wilderness  of  bluffy 
headlands  and  jutting  promontories  is  that  point  which  marks  the 
dividing  line  between  the  Kadiak  region  and  Cook's  Inlet — Cape 
Douglas.  It  is  a  lofty  alpine  ridge  or  spur,  abruptly  thrust  out  at 
a  right  angle  to  the  coast,  and  into  and  over  the  sea  for  a  distance 
of  three  miles,  where  it  drops  suddenly  with  a  sheer  precipitous 
fall  of  over  one  thousand  feet  into  the  waves  that  thunder  on  its 
everlasting  foundations.  Baffling  winds  here,  and  turbulent  tide- 
rips  distress  that  navigator  who,  coming  down  from  the  inlet,  seeks 
the  harbor  of  St.  Paul's  village.  He  hardly  regards  this  seared 
and  rugged  headland  with  that  admiration  which  the  geologist  and 


THE  GREAT   ISLAND   OF   KADIAK.  99 

the  crtist  always  will.  The  "woollies,"  which  blow  fiercely  off 
from  it,  worry  him  and  challenge  all  his  nautical  skill. 

Kadiak  Island  is  the  centre,  geographical  and  commercial,  of  a 
most  interesting  and  wide-extended  district,  perhaps  the  most  so, 
of  the  Alaskan  Territory,  and  Kadiak  village,  or  Saint  Paul  Harbor 
is,  in  turn,  the  central  and  all-important  settlement  of  this  district.* 
It  was  the  site  of  the  first  grand  depot  of  the  old  Russian  American 
Company,  and  also  the  location  of  the  first  missionary  establish- 
ment and  day-school  ever  founded  on  the  northwest  coast  of  the 
continent.  From  the  quiet  moorings  of  this  beautiful  Kadiak  bay 
hundreds  of  shallops  and  vessels  bearing  courageous  monks  and 
priests  have  set  out  in  every  direction  over  all  Alaska,  carrying 
scores  of  them  to  preach  the  gospel  among  its  savage  inhabitants, 
who  then  were  savage  indeed  to  all  intents  and  purposes. 

The  first  visit  ever  made  by  white  men  to  the  great  Island  of 
Kadiak  was  the  landing  here  in  the  autumn  of  1763,  at  Alikitak  Bay, 
of  Stepan  Glottov,  a  Russian  sea-otter  trader,  who  went  into  winter- 
quarters  at  the  southeastern  extremity  of  the  island,  on  a  spot  now 
called  Kahgooak  settlement.  The  natives  were  ugly,  hostile,  re- 
fused all  intercourse,  and  ke-ot  the  Russians  in  a  chronic  state  of 
fear.  Scurvy  broke  out  in  their  camp  and  nearly  destroyed  the  in- 
vaders, leaving  less  than  one-third  of  them  alive  in  the  spring. 
They  managed  then,  with  the  greatest  effort,  to  launch  their  vessel 
and  get  away,  the  savages  meanwhile  constantly  attempting  to  fin- 
ish that  destruction  which  bodily  disease  had  so  well-nigh  effected. 

The  beginning  of  the  eighth  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century 
is  a  true  date  of  the  real  epoch  of  Russian  domination  in  Alaska. 
All  history  of  white  exploration  in  this  country  prior  to  that  is  sim- 
ply the  cruel  legend  of  an  eager,  heartless  band  of  outraging  Mus- 
covites, doing  everything  just  for  the  gain  of  the  present  moment, 
sowing  so  badly  that  they  dared  not  remain  and  reap.  One  of  those 
big-brained,  cool,  and  indomitable  Russians,  who  gave  then  as  they 
give  now,  the  stamp  of  high  character  to  the  race,  was  for  several 
years  prior  to  1780  prominently  engaged  in  the  American  fur  trade. 
Grigor  Ivan  Shellikov  was  this  man.  He  was  a  citizen  of  the  Sibe- 
rian town  of  Roolsk.  He  resolved  to  survey  in  person  those  scenes 


*  With  the  exception  of  Prince  of  Wales  Island  in  the  Sitkan  archipelago, 
Kadiak  is  the  largest  Alaskan  island.  There  is  not  much  difference  between 
these  two  islands  in  landed  area  ;  the  former,  however,  is  the  bigger. 


100  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

of  rapid  demoralization  and  ruin  to  the  profitable  prosecution  of  his 
Alaskan  business,  and,  if  possible,  to  attempt  a  change  for  the  bet- 
ter. An  evident  decrease  in  furs,  together  with  the  hostile  atti- 
tude of  the  natives,  provoked  altogether  by  their  inhuman  treatment 
at  the  hands  of  the  "  promishlyniks,"  called  for  reform  in  the  most 
emphatic  manner.  After  a  carefully  deliberated  plan  of  action  had 
been  determined  upon  between  himself  and  his  partners,  the  broth- 
ers Gollikov,  he  at  once  proceeded  to  the  Okotsk  Sea  and  fitted  out 
three  small  vessels  for  his  expedition.*  He  did  not  reach  Kadiak 
until  1784,  two  years  after  starting  out,  when  two  of  his  vessels 
came  to  anchor  in  the  harbor  now  known,  as  it  was  then  christened 
by  him,  Three  Saints  Bay.  Shellikov  was  a  ready  and  willing  cor- 
respondent. His  numerous  letters  to  his  Siberian  partners  and  his 
own  published  "Journeys"  give  us  a  clear  idea  of  the  hardihood 
of  his  enterprise,  and  they  have  a  rare  ethnographic  value.  From 
them  we  learn  of  the  great  liking  which  Shellikov's  party  took  to 
the  Island  of  Kadiak,  and  how  they  resolved,  soon  after  making  a 
short  reconnoissance,  to  establish  themselves  permanently  if  they 
could  gain  the  confidence  of  its  savage  inhabitants. 

Shellikov  sent  out  a  scouting  party  and  captured  a  Kaniag, 
brought  him  into  camp,  and  loaded  the  bewildered  native  with  pres- 
ents and  kindness,  then  sent  him  back  to  his  people ;  but  the 
native,  though  won  wholly  over  himself,  f  could  not  prevail  upon 
his  hostile  countrymen,  who  soon  gave  the  Eussians  ample  evidence 
of  their  enmity.  A  party  of  the  latter  in  two  of  the  ships'  boats 
were  exploring  and  hunting,  when  they  were  disturbed  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  "  perfect  cloud "  of  natives  that  were  encamped  on 
rough  and  precipitous  uplands  of  Oogak  Island,  a  short  distance 
from  the  main  island  itself.  Shellikov  resolved  to  proceed  himself  to 
the  spot  and  endeavor  to  win  them  over  to  amity  and  trade.  He  ex- 


*  These  ' '  galiots  "  where  characteristically  named  by  Shellikov's  spiritual 
advisers,  viz. :  The  Three  Saints;  The  Archangel  Michael  and  Simeon,  the 
Friend  of  God ;  and  Anna  the  Proplietess.  Bad  weather  and  poor  navigation 
caused  the  vessels  to  separate,  so  that  Shellikov  was  compelled  to  winter  on 
Bering  Island  ;  but  during  the  following  year  the  little  fleet  was  reorganized, 
and  it  reached  Oonalashka,  where  repairs  again  were  necessary. 

f  Shellikov  says  that  this  man  returned  the  following  day  and  refused  to 
leave  the  Russian  camp ;  that  he  not  only  accompanied  and  served  him  in  all 
his  voyages  thereafter,  but  often  warned  the  party  of  hostile  ambuscades  and 
hidden  dangers  by  land  and  sea. 


THE   GREAT  ISLAND    OF    KADiAK.  101 

hausted  every  art  of  pacification  that  his  ready  wit  could  suggest 
without  making  the  slightest  favorable  impression  upon  these  men, 
who  treasured  up  in  the  liveliest  recollection  those  outrages  and  in- 
dignities which  they  had  hitherto  suffered  from  the  arms  and  vices 
of  Shellikov's  Muscovitic  predecessors.  The  only  answer  that  they 
made  to  the  trader  now  was  that  he  at  once  embark  and  leave  the 
island,  and  a  few  arrows  and  bird-spears  were  discharged  and 
thrown  at  him  by  way  of  clinching  the  argument.  The  Russians 
retired  to  their  camp,  and  wisely  erected  over  day  a  rude  stockade — 
none  too  quick,  for  these  Kaniags  approached  the  harbor  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,  unobserved,  and  threw  themselves  with  fren- 
zied fury  upon  the  slightly  fortified  Russians.  The  battle  lasted 
until  daylight.  The  necessity  and  instincf  of  self-preservation 
caused  the  whites  to  fight  with  desperate  coolness  and  intrepidity. 
The  slaughter  was  great  among  the  natives,  and,  considering  the 
vastly  inferior  numbers  of  the  Russians,  their  loss,  too,  was  heavy. 
In  spite  of  the  bravery  of  the  whites  in  this  terrible  midnight  strug- 
gle, they  would  have  been  overpowered  and  exterminated  ere  the 
dawning,  had  it  not  been  for  the  consternation  which  the  reports 
of  their  small  iron  two-pounders  created  in  the  assailing  ranks  of 
those  dusky  hosts. 

Recognizing  the  fact  that  now  the  only  hope  of  peace  and  com- 
mercial intercourse  with  these  natives  lay  in  their  complete  subju- 
gation, Shellikov,  immediately  after  the  sullen  retreat  of  the  hostiles, 
armed  one  of  his  vessels  and  followed  them  up  to  their  rocky  for- 
tresses in  Oogak,  where  they  had  taken  up  a  position  that  was  well- 
nigh  impregnable,  and  to  which  savage  reinforcements  were  rapidly 
flocking  from  the  main  islands.  Unable  to  reach  the  entrenched 
camp  of  those  defiant  natives  with  the  small  ship's-cannon,  Shel- 
likov picked  a  party  of  sixty  men  out  of  his  company,  went  ashore 
with  them,  and,  with  his  little  iron  two-pounders,  he  stormed  the 
enemy  with  such  impetuosity  that  the  rapid  discharges  of  these  guns 
and  small  fire-arms  of  the  charging  Russians  utterly  demoralized 
an  immensely  superior  force  of  the  savages,  who  became  panic- 
stricken,  and  actually  jumped  by  scores  off  the  high  bluffs  of 
Oogak  into  the  sea,  hundreds  of  feet  below  ;  the  rest  of  them, 
more  than  a  thousand  souls,  surrendered  to  the  Russians,  who  took 
and  located  them  on  a  rocky  islet,  several  miles  from  the  harbor  of 
Three  Saints,  and  temporarily  provided  them  with  provisions  ;  and 
then,  with  hunting-gear,  they  were  set  to  work  and  liberally  paid  for 


102  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

their  peltries.  Twenty  or  thirty  of  their  leaders  were  kept  as  host- 
ages on  the  vessels,  and  the  result  was  entire  submission  every- 
where afterward  to  the  Russians  in  this  region.  Occasional  at- 
tacks and  massacres  would  now  and  then  be  made  upon  far-distant 
hunting  parties  of  the  Russians,  it  is  true,  but  the  moral  effect  of 
the  Oogak  victory  and  slaughter  was  such  among  the  Kadiakers 
that  no  further  combined  organized  resistance  or  opposition  was 
ever  given  again. 

Shellikov  soon  realized  that  he  was  in  no  further  danger  from 
savage  attacks.  He  began  a  most  extensive  and  thorough  explora- 
tion of  the  great  island,  and  organizations  of  trading-posts  at  every 
eligible  point.  He  sent  a  large  party  around  to  the  north  side  and 
located  it  at  Karlook,  where  we  now  find  quite  a  salmon-canning 
establishment.  Here,  during  the  winter  of  1785-86  fifty-two  Rus- 
sians and  as  many  natives  ranged  all  over  the  water  of  Shellikov 
Straits  in  eager  search  of  the  sea-otter  ;  in  the  meantime  the  whites 
under  Shellikov's  immediate  command  were  actively  examining 
the  recesses  and  fiords  which  are  so  numerous  and  deep  on  the 
south  side  of  Kadiak.  So  well  and  so  thoroughly  was  this  work 
carried  out,  that  by  the  beginning  of  1786  Shellikov  had  made  him- 
self well  acquainted  with  the  whole  region — had  established  his 
trading-posts  at  every  point  between  Shooak,  in  the  north,  and 
Trinity  Islands,  at  the  extreme  south;  and  had  even  made  himself 
tolerably  familiar  with  the  coast  of  Cook's  Inlet,  having  chastised 
the  ugly  Kenaitze  in  a  most  summary  manner. 

Again,  this  remarkable  man  is  distinguished  by  the  successful 
and  sensible  effort  which  he  made  in  substituting  for  the  orgies  of 
Kadiak  demonology  the  practices  of  the  Greek  Church,  which,  he 
wisely  foresaw,  if  effected,  would  bind  the  natives  closer  to  the 
Russians  than  any  other  power.  He  was  aided  in  this  by  the  per- 
sonal labors  and  example  of  his  wife,  who  accompanied  him  at  the 
outset.  She  instructed  the  girls  and  women  in  needle-work,  and 
acquired  an  influence  over  them  that  was  very  great.  Feeling 
certain  that  he  had  established  his  trade  on  a  secure  foundation, 
Shellikov  and  his  wife  sailed  for  home  on  May  22,  1786,  in  the 
same  vessel  which  brought  them  out,  leaving  an  impress  of  endur- 
ing character  upon  Alaska  of  the  greatest  good  and  worth. 

During  the  first  years  of  the  existence  of  the  Shellikov  Company, 
thus  established  here  in  Kadiak,  it  enjoyed  the  partial  protection 
of  the  Crown  and  many  exclusive  privileges,  by  which  advantages 


THE  GREAT   ISLAND   OF   KADIAK.  103 

nearly  all  the  smaller  trading  companies  had  been  fairly  crowded 
out  of  the  country.  But  it  was  not  always  the  power  conferred 
upon  a  great  firm  by  its  favor  at  Court  and  larger  capital  that 
gained  supremacy  in  Alaska  during  those  early  days — it  frequently 
occurred  that  the  employes  of  one  association  resorted  to  physical 
force  of  arms  in  dispossessing  those  of  another,  and  then,  this 
order  initiated,  the  strongest  organization  was  sure  to  eventually 
dominate  the  coveted  region.  This  commercial  anarchy  led  to  the 
autocratic  monopoly  of  the  Russian  American  Company  in  a  very 
few  years — it  was  the  best  thing  that  could  then  have  transpired 
for  Alaska  and  its  people. 

The  approach  to  Kadiak  from  the  ocean  is  striking,  because 
it  and  the  numerous  islets  and  islands  that  join  it  closely  are 
mountainous  and  hilly,  with  many  lofty  peaks  that  have  plateaux 
and  ravines  full  of  eternal  snow.  It  is  not  often  seen  clearly,  how- 
ever, along  its  full  extent  of  wild  topography,  on  account  of  clouds, 
fog  and  boisterous  weather,  which  terrifies  the  navigator,  driving 
him  from  its  vision.  It  is,  however,  an  island  that  affords  the 
greatest  number  of  safe  and  snug  harbors,  and  has  no  rival  as  the 
most  enjoyable  place  for  the  traveller  to  visit.  It  so  justifies  us  in 
our  mind  to-day,  just  as  it  warranted  the  Russians  in  expressing 
their  preference  for  it  a  full  hundred  years  ago. 

Nature  has  drawn  across  Kadiak  in  a  firm  line,  the  ultimate 
limit  of  timber  growth  to  the  westward.  It  seems  to  be  as  arbi- 
trary and  capricious  as  if  traced  there  by  the  humor  of  a  human 
ruler.  Only  one-third  of  the  island  itself,  its  northern  extremity, 
is  covered  with  spruce-forest ;  the  invisible  barrier  to  the  west 
seems  to  be  a  perfectly  straight  line  over  from  the  heads  of  Orlova 
Bay  on  the  south  side  to  that  of  Ooganok  on  the  north  coast.  Here 
the  change  from  a  vigorous  growth  of  spruce-forest  to  bare  hills 
and  grassy  tundra  is  most  abrupt  and  astonishingly  sharp  in  defini- 
tion ;  you  pass  from  the  jungle  of  the  woods,  at  a  single  step,  into 
leather  of  the  moor.  This  line,  with  a  slight  curve  to  the  westward 
only,  strikes  the  same  definition  over  on  the  mainland  of  the  peninsula 
opposite,  and  runs  right  up  north  to  Bering's  Straits'  latitude,  avoid- 
ing the  coast  everywhere  except  at  Cape  Denbigh,  Norton's  Sound. 

There  is  scarcely  any  lowland,  indeed  none  at  all,  on  the  large 
island  itself ;  it  is  everywhere  mountainous  and  abruptly  rolling, 
with  spaces  here  and  there  in  which  the  grasses  flourish  to  a  great 
extent  A  legion  of  small  streams  rush  down  to  the  bays  from 


104  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

their  mountain  sources,  but  none  of  them  are  navigable — they  are 
mere  rapids  and  cascades  in  their  entire  length.  A  growth  of  the 
characteristic  circumpolar  annuals  and  biennials  on  the  slopes  of 
these  hills  of  Kadiak  is  of  exotic  luxuriance,  and  of  the  most  varied 
beauty  of  floral  display  in  June,  July,  and  August.  Willows  and 
alders  fringe  the  borders  of  the  streams  in  their  range  throughout 
the  woodless  area,  while  stunted  birch  and  green  grasses  reach  to 
the  very  summits  of  the  hilly  ridges  of  the  interior. 

Although  Shellikov  had  established  the  headquarters  of  his 
Russian  Company  on  Three  Saints  Bay  with  good  reason  at  the 
time,  yet  when  the  entire  Alaskan  region  went  into  the  control  of  a 
single  organization,  it  became  necessary  to  have  a  grand  central 
depot  of  supplies.  Therefore  Baranov  promptly  removed  to  the 
site  of  the  present  village  of  Kadiak.  Upon  that  wooded  island  in 
the  offing  he  procured  the  lumber  and  timbers  necessary  for  the 
erection  of  those  huge  warehouses  and  numerous  dwellings  of  many 
sizes  required  to  house  the  merchandise,  furs,  and  his  employes. 
The  harbor,  too,  is  ample,  and  so  situated  that  sailing-craft .  can 
come  and  go  in  all  winds.  Sadly,  indeed,  did  the  Russians,  a  few 
years  later,  abandon  Kadiak  for  Sitka,  as  the  numerous  letters  and 
protests  still  on  file  show  ;  but  the  menacing  encroachments  of  for- 
eign traders  in  the  far-distant  Alexander  archipelago  were  too  grave 
in  their  portents  of  loss  and  usurpation  of  vested  rights  to  allow  of 
any  other  action. 

To-day  many  of  the  ancient  Russian  structures  are  still  pointed 
out  in  the  village  here  which  commands  the  harbor  of  Saint  Paul, 
and  in  which  some  three  hundred  Creoles  are  living  in  well-built 
log  and  frame  houses.  Everything  is  clean*  and  orderly,  but  very, 
very  quiet,  inasmuch  as  no  commerce,  no  monthly  steamer,  no 
tramping  miners  invade  the  solitude  of  its  location.  It  supports  a 
large  Greek  church  and  the  priest  attendant.  Its  people,  as  a  rule, 
are  wholly  engaged  in  the  business  of  trading  fur  and  hunting  sea- 
otters.  Small  codfish  schooners  often  rendezvous  here,  and  thfc 

*  Cleanliness  and  comfort,  however,  were  but  little  regarded  by  the  Rus- 
sian fur-traders,  who  gave  their  surroundings  of  residence  no  sanitary  atten- 
tion whatever.  Even  Baranov  himself  was  supremely  indifferent,  and  when 
the  Imperial  Commissioner,  Resanov,  called  on  him  at  Sitka  in  1805,  the  chief 
manager  of  the  Russian  American  Company  was  living  in  a  mere  hut,  "  in 
which  the  bed  was  often  afloat,"  and  a  leak  in  the  roof  too  small  a  matter  to 
notice  I 


THE   GREAT  ISLAND   OF   KADIAK.  105 

natives  also  cut  considerable  cord-wood,  for  the  use  of  such  fur- 
traders  who  ply  to  the  treeless  districts  westward,  and  fuel 
for  fishing  canneries  at  Karlook  and  Kassilov.  Several  little 
mountain  rivulets  flow  through  the  limits  of  this  settlement,  which 
is  everywhere  well  drained,  and  therefore  dry  in  the  streets  by  rea- 
son of  its  position  on  the  rising  slopes  of  the  lofty  hills  which 
make  a  bold  background,  when  the  picture  is  viewed  from  the  ship's 
deck  as  you  sail  up  to  the  anchorage.  The  presence  here  of  some 
thirty  white  men,  pure  Kussian  Creoles,  and  several  of  our  own 
people  who  have  really  settled  in  the  country,  many  of  them  mar- 
ried, and  who  call  the  place  home,  makes  Kadiak  unique  in  this  re- 
spect. Elsewhere,  if  we  find  a  white  man  living  at  the  trading- 
posts,  or  plying  his  vocation  as  a  cod-salmon  fisherman,  or  miner, 
he  always  draws  himself  up  and  emphatically  denies  any  idea  of 
permanent  residence  in  Alaska. 

Looking  down  the  bay,  we  observe  a  thickly  timbered  and  a 
somewhat  more  level  island  than  usual — it  is  the  famous  Wood 
Island,  where  the  largest  spruce-trees  in  all  this  section  grow  ;  upon 
it  is  a  small  village  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  souls,  living  in 
thirteen  log  houses,  thickly  clustered  together ;  they  are  all  sea- 
otter  hunters  during  the  summer.  This  village  is  also  the  depot  of 
that  mysterious  San  Francisco  corporation  which  has  regularly  cut 
up  and  stored  tons  of  ice  here  every  winter  since  1856,  and  never 
has  shipped  a  pound  of  it  away  !  and  when  the  bright,  hearty  agent 
of  this  corporation  asks  you  to  come  out  with  him  to  the  stable  and 
advises  you  to  mount  one  of  the  three  or  four  horses  sheltered 
therein,  so  that  you  can  gallop  round  the  island  with  him,  your 
astonishment  is  perfect. 

Sure  enough,  there  is  a  road,  incredible  as  it  first  seemed ; 
for,  in  order  that  the  horses  might  be  exercised,  a  good  track  has 
been  made  upon  the  entire  tide-level  circuit  of  the  island,  about 
twelve  miles  in  length,  over  which  the  ice  company's  stock  is  trotted 
every  summer  at  frequent  intervals  ;  in  the  winter  these  unwonted 
animals  are  busy  hauling  ice.  You  may  well  improve  this  oppor- 
tunity, for  it  will  not  occur  again  as  you  travel  in  Alaska — you  will 
not  be  able  to  ride  elsewhere  on  a  road  worthy  of  the  name. 

A  number  of  small  trading-sloops  and  schooners  have  been  built 
here  in  a  boatyard,  fashioned  by  the  skill  of  some  Creole  ship- 
carpenters,  who  were  trained  in  the  yards  at  Sitka  when  Russian 
authority  was  dominant,  and  who  have  taken  up  their  permanent 


106  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

abode  in  this  "  Leesnoi  "  settlement.  A  few  small,  tough  Siberian 
cattle,  such  as  we  saw  at  Neelshik,  Cook's  Inlet,  are  roaming  about 
here,  cared  for  by  the  natives  who  prize  milk  ;  also  several  of  these 
same  bovines  are  to  be  seen  at  Kadiak,  where  they  are  limited  also 
to  a  few  head,  on  account  of  the  trouble  of  winter  attendance  and 
loss  from  bears  in  the  summer  pasturage. 

An  odd,  weather-beaten  faded  little  building  is  pointed  out  by 
the  natives  with  pride  and  animation,  as  the  house  in  which  a 
"  soul-like  man  " — a  Russian  monk  made  his  abode  for  thirty  con- 
secutive years,  teaching  the  children  of  the  village  and  those  of 
the  neighboring  towns,  who  flocked  here  in  great  numbers  to  be 
instructed.  He  taught  the  Russian  alphabet,  so  that  the  church 
service  might  be  intelligible ;  also  rudimentary  .art-principles, 
gardening  and  divers  useful  habits  for  such  youth.  This  unique 
shrine  is  in  the  heart  of  the  next  village  closely  adjoining,  and 
which  is  located  on  Spruce  Island,  or  "  Yealovnie,"  as  the  seventy 
odd  Russian  Creoles  who  live  there  call  it.  It  is  a  little  hamlet 
of  only  fifteen  small  log  houses,  very  neat  and  clean  ;  and  the  pret- 
tiest of  flower-pots  within  the  scant  windows  give  you  a  far-away 
thought  as  you  observe  them.  Here  is  also  one  of  the  tiniest  of 
Greek  chapels,  in  which  the  natives  are  regularly  joined  by  the 
small  number  of  those  of  Oozinkie  village  (a  little  way  off)  and  just 
across  the  straits  ;  these  people,  who  have  no  church,  are  also  pure 
Creoles,  and  unite  in  perfect  accord  with  those  of  Spruce  town. 

Near  by,  on  the  southern  shore  of  Afognak  Island,  is  the  largest 
settlement  of  the  "  old  colonial  citizens "  in  the  Territory  •  three 
hundred  and  thirty  of  these  people  are  living  here  in  a  very  pictur- 
esque and  substantial  village  ;  a  large  chapel,  which  is  also  used  as 
a  school-house,  is  the  distinguishing  architectural  feature,  while  a 
number  of  newly-built  row-boats  for  fishermen,  on  the  stocks,  in  a 
miniature  shipyard,  point  to  an  industry  worthy  of  attention.  The 
town  is  spread  over  a  large  landed  extent,  which  in  many  places 
between  the  dwellings  is  devoted  to  vegetable  gardens.  More 
land  is  under  cultivation  here  than  all  the  rest  so  treated  in 
Alaska  to-day  ;  the  crops  of  potatoes,  cabbages,  turnips,  and  garden- 
salads,  like  radishes,  etc.,  seldom  fail  except  in  very  backward 
years.  No  ploughing*  is  done  ;  the  earth  prepared  for  potatoes  is 

*  On  Wood  Island,  however,  a  small  field  of  rye,  oats,  or  barley,  is  planted 
every  year  for  the  use  of  the  horses  kept  there  ;  here  a  plough  is  employed. 


THE   GREAT   ISLAND   OF   KADIAK.  107 

thrown  with  spades,  picks,  and  hoes  up  as  small  ridges  or  tumuli, 
into  the  surface  of  which  the  seed  is  planted.  A  few  of  those 
shaggy  little  bulls  and  cows,  which  we  have  noticed  before  at  Wood 
Island  and  Kadiak,  are  also  roaming  about,  and  a  great  many 
domestic  fowls,  such  as  chickens  and  ducks,  are  raised  by  the 
women  and  children,  who  take  the  poultry  into  the  attics  or  lofts 
above  their  living  rooms  during  the  inclemencies  of  winter. 

The  desire  of  the  Russians  to  have  beef,  milk,  and  butter,  led  to 
a  very  general  importation  of  Siberian  cattle  from  Petropaulovsk  so 
that  every  post  in  Alaska,  at  one  time,  had  at  least  a  pair  of  these 
useful  animals  to  start  with.  The  greatest  care  was  given  to  them 
at  first,  everywhere  ;  they  were  especially  fostered  at  Sitka,  where 
the  demand  for  their  flesh  and  milk  was  most  urgent,  but  at  Kadiak 
and  the  Kenai  mission  on  Cook's  Inlet,  the  only  partial  success  in 
causing  an  increase  to  the  stock  was  achieved.  Impressed  with  an 
idea  that  certain  sections  of  the  Kadiak  region  would  serve  admira- 
bly for  sheep-husbandry,  a  San  Francisco  merchant-firm  shipped  a 
flock  of  rams  and  ewes — one  hundred  and  fifty  of  them — sheep  of 
the  hardiest  breed,  to  Kolma,  a  spot  not  far  from  St.  Paul's  Harbor, 
Kadiak.  They  were  in  charge  of  a  trained  Scotch  shepherd  ;  but 
while  the  flock  did  remarkably  well  in  the  summer,  yet  most  of 
them  perished  during  the  following  winter,  not  from  exposure  nor 
want  of  food,  but  the  long-continued  and  frequent  intervals  when 
the  sheep  are  obliged  to  be  shut  up  tightly  from  the  fury  of  wintry 
gales  laden  with  sleet  and  rain  and  snow,  causes  their  wool  to 
"sweat"  and  fall  from  the  skin  in  large  patches,  producing  an 
emaciation  and  debility  which  the  animal  seldom  fully  recovers 
from.  Also,  the  general  dampness  everywhere  under  foot  during  the 
summer  season  in  many  good  grazing  sections  of  Alaska,  is  such 
as  to  cause  an  abnormal  increase  of  the  hoofs,  so  that  the  horny  toes 
turn  and  grow  upward,  destroying  the  peace  and  comfort  of  a 
sheep  and  literally  confine  its  movements  and  destroy  its  thrifty 
life.* 

These  cereals  never  ripen,  but  are  cut  green,  and  fed  as  fodder.  Corn  is  a 
total  failure  everywhere,  even  as  fodder.  No  cereals  have  been  ripened  in 
Alaska  ;  the  attempt,  however,  has  been  made  a  thousand  times. 

*  The  first  cattle  brought  into  Alaska  were  taken  to  Kadiak  in  1795,  and 
from  this  central  station  the  stock  was  distributed — so  that  by  1833  it  had 
increased  to  a  herd  of  over  two  hundred  and  twenty.  At  the  present  writing 
it  is  very  doubtful  whether  there  are  sixty  head  in  the  whole  region.  Every 


108  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

Since  these  little  villages  of  Kadiak,  Leesnoi,  Yealova,  and  Af- 
ognak  embrace  within  their  limits  a  large  majority  of  the  sixteen 
or  seventeen  hundred  Creoles  who  are  residents  and  natives  of 
Alaska,  it  may  be  interesting  if  a  sketch  be  given  of  the  physical 
and  mental  characteristics  which  distinguish  them  broadly  from  the 
aboriginal  types.  The  original  Creole  was  the  offspring  of  a  Rus- 
sian father  and  an  Aleutian  or  Kaniag  mother.  He  inherited  the 
strong  thickset  frame  and  bushy,  curly  beard  and  brown  hair  of 
his  father  ;  in  many  cases  his  eyes  were  as  blue  (and  his  hair  some- 
times red),  his  skin  as  white,  and  his  bearing  just  as  good  as  was 
his  Russian  progenitors'.  The  aggressive  energy,  however,  of  the 
sire  seldom  was  transmitted,  the  Creole  being  indolent  and  very  pa- 
cific in  disposition.  If  this  original  Creole,  in  his  time  and  turn, 
married  a  full-blooded  Aleutian  or  Kaniag  girl,  then  the  offspring 
would  show  a  marked  dominance  of  the  mother's  race — indeed,  the 
child  would  be  as  much  like  other  Aleutian  babies  as  they  are  re- 
lated in  looks  among  themselves  ;  but  if  this  original  Creole  mar- 
ries an  original  Creole  girl,  sired  like  himself,  then  we  have  a  type 
which  cannot  be  distinguished  at  all  from  the  full-blooded  Sla- 
vonian, only  much  less  demonstrative,  alert,  and  pugnacious.  Most 
of  these  old  colonial  citizens  of  this  district  of  Kadiak  are  therefore 
full-blooded  Russian  quadroons  and  octoroons,  and  in  every  physi- 
cal aspect  are  as  much  like  Russians  as  if  of  pure  origin.  Those 
early  Creoles,  male  and  female,  who  mated,  as  they  matured,  with 
the  native  males  and  females,  in  so  doing  caused  all  their  offspring, 
long  ago,  to  revert  to  the  savage  types,  and  we  cannot  distinguish 
them  to-day. 

Some  of  the  Creole  girls  and  women  whom  we  observe  in  these 
settlements  are  exceedingly  handsome,  modest,  and  the  only  fault 
we  can  find  with  them  is  their  absolute  speechlessness — they  can- 
not be  induced  to  chat  with  us,  though  they  seem  to  enjoy  our 
presence.  Most  of  them  live  in  scrupulously  clean  houses,  the 
floors  scrubbed  and  sanded  like  a  well  holystoned  ship's  deck, 
walls  papered  and  decorated  with  pictures  of  saints  and  other  pious 
subjects ;  old  Russian  furniture,  chairs,  settees,  bureaus,  and 

season  it  is  the  habit  of  traders  and  others  to  send  upon  steamers  as  they  go,  a 
few  head  of  beef-steers,  which  are  turned  out  at  Sitka,  Kadiak,  and  Oonalashka 
to  fatten  during  the  summer,  and  then  are  slaughtered  when  winter  ensues. 
Pigs  thrive  here,  but  live  too  much  on  the  sea-refuse  for  the  good  of  their  flesh. 
So  they  are  not  favored. 


THE   GREAT   ISLAND    OF   KADIAK.  109 

clocks  of  our  own  make  ;  the  bright,  omnipresent  " samovar"  in 
which  the  boiling  water  for  tea  is  never  allowed  to  get  cool  ;  little 
curtains  over  the  small  windows,  and  big  curtains  puckered  around 
the  beds — everything  is  usually  clean,  tidy,  and  quiet  within  the 
Creole's  home. 

The  wants  of  the  Creole  are  very  few  outside  of  what  the  coun- 
try in  which  he  li ves  affords  him.  He  manages  to  so  deal  in  sea-otter, 
and  fox  and  bear  skins  as  to  get  from  the  trader's  store  what  tea, 
sugar,  flour,  and  cloth  are  required  for  his  family.  Beyond  this 
exertion  and  that  displayed  in  his  gardening  he  rests  wholly  at 
peace  with  himself  and  all  the  rest  of  the  world. 

The  Kaniags  or  Kadiakers,  who  are  the  natives  of  this  island 
and  contiguous  islands,  are  in  much  greater  numbers,  and  are  to 
be  found  everywhere  here  in  small  hamlets  that  nestle  in  the  deep 
fiords  and  bays  of  Kadiak.  They  resemble  the  Aleutes  so  closely  in 
outward  form  and  characteristics  that  the  full  description  given 
in  a  following  chapter  of  those  people  will  cover  the  whole  ground 
of  this  inquiry,  only  let  it  be  remembered  that  the  Kaniag  is  a 
trifle  taller  than  his  Aleutian  cousin,  has  a  fairer  skin,  a  somewhat 
broader  face,  and  is  considerably  more  muscular.  Like  the  Aleutes, 
he  has  small  feet  and  hands,  small  black  eyes  set  in  deep  sockets, 
little  or  no  beard,  and  an  abundance  of  coarse,  straight,  black  hair, 
which  he  cuts  off  roughly  just  above  his  shoulders  ;  he  has  a  trifle 
more  beard  and  a  better  mustache,  but  this  is  a  very  fine  distinc- 
tion. He  is  lighter-hearted,  freer,  and  more  jovial,  but  has  less 
patience  during  seasons  of  privation  or  epidemic  disease. 

"When  the  Kaniags  gather  together  they  are  exceedingly  talka- 
tive, abounding  in  jokes,  in  the  recitation  of  funny  legends,  and 
stories  of  every  imaginable  nature  associated  with  their  simple 
li  ves.  As  they  paddle  their  bidarkas  and  bidarrahs  in  making  long 
journeys,  they  enliven  the  labor  by  continuous  songs,  snatches 
from  church  tunes,  or  lively  airs  taught  them  by  the  Russians  and 
later  by  our  soldiers  and  traders.  They  are  in  every  respect  much 
more  susceptible  of  emotional  impulses  than  are  the  Aleutes.  This 
greater  sociability  is  well  exhibited  by  the  invariable  erection,  in 
every  settlement,  of  a  "kashima,"  or  public  dance  and  work-house, 
or,  in  fact,  a  town-hall  as  we  have  it : — the  Aleutes  have  nothing  of 
the  sort.  They  pass  a  good  deal  of  their  time  on  the  land,  travers- 
ing mountain  trails  in  quest  of  bears,  wolves,  foxes,  the  land-otter, 
and  the  marmot,  or  "  yeavrashkie,"  which  is  made  into  that  famous 


110  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

skin  coat  called  the  "  parkie  "  all  over  this  Alaskan  country  outside 
of  the  Sitkan  archipelago. 

As  these  natives  exist  to-day  there  are  only  eighteen  hundred, 
a  few  more  or  less,  of  them,  which  is  an  immense  shrinkage  from 
the  Russian  enumeration  of  six  thousand  five  hundred  made  by 
actual  count  of  Baranov.  They  seem  to  be  declining  even  now, 
year  by  year,  even  as  the  Koloshians  of  the  Sitkan  region  do,  so 
that  the  native  population  of  the  Kadiak  district,  if  decreased  *  in 
the  next  two  decades  as  it  has  in  the  last,  will  hardly  have  a  living 
representative.  No  one  can  well  avoid  a  train  of  fast-crowding 
thought  when  he  stops  in  contemplation  of  sickness  and  death  as 
it  appears  and  is  treated  in  savage  settlements — the  only  medical 
counsel  that  they  ever  have  is  their  own  individual  instinct.  Ignor- 
ant as  they  are  of  the  simplest  anatomical  details  of  their  structure, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  they  should  surrender  to  disorders  and 
disease  with  that  remarkable  passive  apathy  which  is  so  distinctive 
of  the  sick  everywhere  in  such  communities. 

Indians,  and  these  Aleutes  and  Kaniags,  as  they  grow  up,  have 
no  parental  supervision  whatever  as  to  details  of  diet,  of  warm  or 
cool  clothing,  or  of  any  of  those  many  attentions  which  our  children 
receive  from  their  parents.  For  the  first  ten  or  twelve  years  of 
their  lives  they  literally  run  wild,  and  are  semi-naked  or  wholly  so, 
both  male  and  female  ;  f  this  is  their  condition,  then,  at  all  seasons 
of  the  year.  Exposed  as  they  are,  in  their  manner  of  living,  to 
draughts,  to  insufficient  covering,  and  damp,  cold  nooks  for  slum- 
ber, in  which  the  air  reeks  with  odors  too  vile  for  the  power  of 
language  to  express,  naturally  they  lay  a  foundation,  at  the  very 
outset  of  their  existence,  for  pulmonic  troubles  in  all  the  varied 
degrees  of  that  dread  disease.  Consumption  is,  therefore,  the 
simple  and  broad  term  for  that  single  ailment  which  alone  destroys 
the  greatest  number  of  these  people,  every  season,  in  Alaska ;  all 
the  natives,  the  Eskimo,  the  Aleut,  the  Kaniag,  and  the  Indians 
suffer  from  it  alike,  and  they  all  exhibit  that  same  stolid  indifference 
to  its  stealthy  but  fatal  advancement — no  extra  care,  no  attempt  to 

*  The  church  records  show  that  the  people  of  the  Kadiak  district  have 
decreased  as  follows  :  1796—6,510;  1818—3,430;  1819—3,252;  1822—2,819; 
1863—2,217  ;  1880—1,813.  Small-pox,  measles,  and  other  imported  diseases 
have  caused  this. 

f  The  little  girls,  as  a  rule,  receive  the  earliest  garments,  generally  nothing 
but  a  cotton  shift  and  a  torn  blanket. 


THE   GREAT   ISLAND    OF   KADIAK.  Ill 

shelter,  to  protect  or  to  ward  off  in  the  slightest  manner  this 
trouble,  until  the  very  moment  of  supreme  dissolution  calls  in  a 
shaman  and  the  sorrowing  relatives. 

After  lung  diseases,  the  next  destroying  factor  of  greatest  power 
is  embodied  in  the  virulence  of  scrofulous  affections,  which  take 
the  form  of  malignant  ulcers  that  eat  into  the  vitals  and  slough 
away  the  walls  of  the  large  arteries.  This  most  loathsome  blood- 
poisoning  renders  a  few  settlements  entirely  leprous,  especially  so 
to  our  startled  eyes  when  we  visit  them.  And  in  this  regard  it 
is  hard  to  find  a  village  in  the  whole  Alaskan  boundary  where  at 
least  one  or  more  of  the  families  therein  has  not  got  upon  some  one 
of  its  members  the  singularly  prominent  scars  that  attest  this  dis- 
ease. Often  a  comely  young  girl  or  man  will,  in  turning  suddenly, 
reveal  under  the  jaws  or  on  the  neck  and  throat,  a  disgusting, 
livid  eruption  which  a  scrofulous  ancestry  has  cursed  the  youth 
with.  Since  most  of  this  complaint  is  on  the  surface,  as  it  were, 
we  naturally  would  look  for  some  care  on  the  part  of  the  afflicted 
native,  even  if  for  no  other  end  than  self-contentment  and  the  ready 
alleviation  of  this  cutaneous  misery  ;  but  we  will  look  in  vain,  the 
patient  never  gives  it.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  utterly  neglected,  and 
by  reason  of  the  filthy  habit  of  these  people,  it  is  immensely  aggra- 
vated and  made  infinitely  more  violent.  In  regard  to  consumption 
this  apathy  on  the  part  of  the  victim  is  not,  in  contrast,  so  very 
remarkable,  since  it  is  more  concealed  and  not  near  so  disagreeable 
both  to  the  native  and  his  associates. 

Though  consumption  and  scrofula  are  the  two  great  indigenous 
sources  of  disease  and  death  among  the  natives,  yet  there  is  still  a 
list — quite  a  long  one — of  other  ills,  such  as  paralysis,  inflamma- 
tory rheumatism  and  peritonitis,  fits,  and  an  abrupt  ending  of  life 
in  the  middle-aged,  called  most  graphically  "  general  debility."  As 
might  be  inferred  from  the  method  and  exigencies  of  aboriginal 
life  in  Alaska,  these  natives  do  not  survive  to  any  great  age  ;  rarely, 
indeed,  will  an  authenticated  case  of  the  full  limit  of  sixty  years 
be  recorded  or  observed — an  overwhelming  majority  of  them  are 
old  at  thirty-five  and  forty.  When  a  man  or  a  woman  in  a  set- 
tlement rounds  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  or  her  lif e,  a  noted  example  of 
the  tribe  is  afforded ;  but  should  this  age  be  attained,  and  the  man 
then  be  free  from  rheumatic  troubles  or  the  death-grasp  of  scrofu- 
lous or  pulmonic  disease,  he  is  sure  to  be  afflicted  with  injured  and 
defective  vision,  if  not  totally  blind  ;  the  glint  of  snow  and  the  in- 


112  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

tensely  smoky  interiors  of  every  style  of  native  dwelling  so  affect 
the  eyes  of  these  people  that  those  organs  of  sight,  in  the  middle- 
aged,  are  seldom  without  signs  of  decay — showing  some  one  of  the 
various  stages  of  granular  ophthalmia,  as  a  rule. 

Snow-blindness  can  be  remedied  and  its  pain  abated  by  the  use 
of  peculiar  goggles,  which  the  savages  know  well  how  to  make  and 
use,  but  the  greater  evil  of  smoke-poison  to  the  optic  nerve  is  not 
obviated  at  all  by  any  action  on  their  part,  though  it  would  be  easy 
so  to  do.  They  actually  seem  determined  to  live  on  so  as  to  live  as 
wretchedly  in  the  future  as  they  have  in  the  past. 

Another  singular  characteristic  of  these  Alaskan  savages  is  the 
fact  that  none  of  the  many  tribes  have  any  medicine  whatever ;  nor 
have  they  any  knowledge,  so  far  as  we  can  find  out,  of  any  medici- 
nal herb  or  mineral,  and  this  again  is  the  most  extraordinary  item 
of  it  all.  Every  less  or  great  indisposition  is  treated  by  a  uni- 
versal resort  to  the  sweat-bath ;  this  is  the  sole  specific,  and  this 
is  the  only  relief,  except  when  the  shaman  is  called  in  to  worry 
the  last  hours  of  the  unhappy  patient  to  death,  or,  perhaps,  in  rare 
cases,  to  prolong  his  wretched  existence  for  a  longer  period,  by 
stimulating  an  undue  or  extra  nervous  tension,  which  then  causes, 
at  times,  the  usually  languid  and  resigned  sufferer  to  rally,  as  it 
were,  before  the  flame  flickers  out.  Truly  these  people  are  predes- 
tinarians  ;  they  are  wonderful  in  their  patience  when  suffering  long 
and  acutely,  as  they  lie  stretched  out  or  squatted  in  their  gloomy, 
noisome  hovels. 

All  the  traders,  and  every  vessel  that  sails  in  Alaskan  waters, 
have  medicine-chests,  and  to  their  credit  be  it  said  that,  as  far  as 
they  can,  they  do  everything  in  their  power  to  aid  the  natives  when 
sick  ;  but  the  aborigines  have  not  the  right  idea  of  taking  physic, 
since  they  appreciate  nothing  but  forcible  treatment — large  doses  of 
something  that  acts  immediately,  or  nothing  at  all.  For  instance,  if 
the  trader  gives  an  Indian  a  dose  of  Epsom-salts,  the  amount  given 
must  be  at  least  four  or  five  times  as  much  as  would  do  for  himself, 
or  there  will  be  no  effect  on  the  patient  whatever.  Consequently, 
the  simplest  remedies  known  are  the  only  ones  which  the  white 
man  dare  give  to  these  people,  and  they  have,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  very  little  power  to  relieve  them.  During  the  last  six  or 
seven  years  a  violent  form  of  typhoid-pneumonia  has  been  wasting 
whole  settlements  on  the  Kadiak  and  Aleutian  coasts  ;  the  Creoles 
and  the  natives  alike  yield  at  once  to  the  disease,  making  scarcely 


THE   GREAT   ISLAND    OF   KADIAK.  113 

an  effort  to  save  themselves.  The  traders  everywhere  became 
seriously  alarmed,  as  the  force  of  sea-otter  hunters  was  rapidly 
decreasing,  and  exerted  themselves  to  their  utmost  in  staying  the 
epidemic,  which  seemed  to  be  carried  from  one  village  to  the  other 
in  vessels  and  by  canoes.  But  the  only  medicines  which  can  be 
used  in  the  safe  and  successful  treatment  of  this  complaint  were 
regarded  as  unworthy  of  notice  by  the  suffering  natives,  who,  not 
feeling  immediately  relieved  after  taking  them,  would  then  totally 
ignore  their  further  use. 

Bad  enough  are  the  indigenous  ills  of  the  savages  in  Alaska. 
They  were,  however,  nothing  to  the  horrors  which  followed  the  im- 
portation of  small-pox  by  the  Russians  in  1838-39.  This  terrible 
scourge  swept  like  wildfire  up  from  its  initial  point  at  Sitka,  over 
the  whole  length  of  the  Alaskan  mainland  and  island  coast,  until  it 
faded  out  in  the  far  north  where  it  had  nothing  to  prey  upon.  It 
actually  earned  in  its  grim  grasp  one-half  of  the  whole  population 
then  living  in  that  large  area  to  an  abrupt  and  violent  death — sev- 
eral districts  were  so  afflicted  that  not  a  soul  escaped — every 
human  being  was  exterminated  ;  it  was  exceedingly  fatal  and  viru- 
lent in  the  Sitkan  archipelago.  We,  knowing  the  filth  and  expos- 
ure of  the  lives  of  these  people,  can  readily  understand  how  they 
fell  down  and  were  crushed  under  the  march  of  this  disease.*  As 
might  be  supposed  the  Russians  lost  no  time  in  thoroughly  vacci- 
nating the  survivors  ;  and  they  have  been  faithfully  followed,  in 
this  duty,  by  our  own  sailors  and  traders  who  now  live  in  the  coun- 
try. 

Another  imported  evil,  the  measles,  is  almost  as  deadly  up  here 
among  the  natives  as  small-pox.  While  it  is  a  simple  trouble  arous- 
ing no  especial  anxiety  with  us,  yet  in  this  climate,  together  with 
the  careless  methods  of  life,  it  assumes  a  black  form  and  becomes 
malignant  and  fatal.  The  last  extended  attack  took  place  princi- 
pally in  the  villages  of  the  Kadiak  district  in  the  winter  of  1874- 
75,  where  it  so  alarmed  and  impressed  the  sojourning  members  of 
an  Icelandic  Commission  as  to  shake  their  desire  to  emigrate  to 

*  La  Perouse,  who  touched  on  this  coast  in  1786  at  Litooya  Bay,  under 
the  flanks  of  Mount  Fairweather,  declares  that  he  saw  marks  of  the  small-pox 
on  the  savages  who  were  there  then  ;  most  likely  what  he  saw  was  the  scar  of 
scrofulous  sores.  In  1843-44  another  small-pox  outbreak  on  the  Aleutian 
Islands  took  place,  but  the  people  had  been  vaccinated  in  the  meantime,  and 
nothing  serious  came  of  it. 
8 


114  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

that  region — at  least,  when  they  returned  to  their  country,  they 
were  never  heard  from  in  favor  of  Alaska. 

A  very  natural  question  arises  in  this  connection  as  to  whether 
or  no  the  savages  of  Alaska  will  ever  increase  in  numbers  or  dimin- 
ish to  actual  extermination  as  time  advances.  It  appears  very  plain, 
however,  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  Aleutian  chain,  the  Peninsula, 
and  Cook's  Inlet  are  nearly  as  numerous  to-day  as  they  have  been 
ever  since  the  small-pox  decimation  of  1838-39.  But  all  author- 
ities agree  in  declaring  that  these  people  have  never  regained  their 
numerical  force  represented  in  the  settlement  prior  to  the  advent 
of  the  scourge  which  depopulated  them.  As  to  the  Eskimo  of 
the  Bering  Sea  coasts  and  the  Koloshians  of  the  Sitkan  region,  it 
seems  well  established,  from  what  we  can  learn,  that  they  have  re- 
gained their  former  strength  in  part,  and  were  they  only  provident 
they  might  live  by  hundreds  where  they  now  exist  in  tens.  Indif- 
ferent, wholly  indifferent  when  living,  they  are  as  apathetic  when 
they  face  death. 

After  reading  the  quaint  yet  strong  narrative  of  the  ferocity 
and  strength  of  the  Kaniags  which  Shellikov  *  has  given  us,  it  is 
hard,  indeed,  to  realize  that  bold  pioneer's  feeling  as  we  now  look 
in  upon  the  steep  slopes  of  Three  Saints  Bay,  where,  at  the  head  of 
it,  within  the  sweep  of  a  sand-spit,  he  erected  the  first  permanent 
white  habitation  ever  planted  on  Kadiak  with  the  aid  of  the  one 
hundred  and  fifty  or  sixty  Russians  who  formed  his  company. 
Here,  to-day,  we  see  a  cluster  of  sod-walled  barraboras  and  two 
small,  frame  trading-houses,  in  which  live  one  hundred  and  ninety 
of  the  descendants  of  those  hardy  savages  who  terrified  and  nearly 
annihilated  the  party  of  Shellikov  one  hundred  years  ago  in  this 
very  spot.  Nothing  else  is  left,  for  Baranov  in  1796  removed  the 
post  itself  to  the  present  site  of  Kadiak  village.  As  we  scan  the 
settlement  of  Three  Saints  we  notice  that  the  most  prominent  ob- 
ject is  the  rough-hewn  walls  and  thatched  roof  of  an  old  Greek 
chapel,  in  front  of  which  is  a  rude  trestle  ;  from  the  upper  frame  of 
this  a  bell  hangs.  Now  a  stooping  figure  emerges  from  the  church 
door ;  he  seizes  the  clapper,  or  bell  tongue,  with  both  hands  and 
swings  it  vigorously.  Promptly  the  villagers  emerge  from  their  huts  ; 
trotting  and  shambling  in  single  file,  they  all  troop  into  the  chapel. 

*  Grigoria  Shellikova  Stransvovania,  or  Shellikov's  Journeys,  from  1783 
to  1787.  Published,  St.  Petersburg,  1792-93.  12mo.  2  vols. 


THE   GREAT  ISLAND   OF   KADIAK.  115 

Meanwhile  the  dusky  sub-deacon  still  tolls  and  chimes  away  long 
after  every  inhabitant  has  been  gathered  in.  These  men  and 
women  who,  with  bowed  heads  and  fervent  crossings,  bend  and 
kneel  as  they  enter  that  place  of  worship,  are  the  children  of  the 
"  blood-thirsty  and  implacable  "  Kaniags  of  whom  Shellikov  gave  so 
vivid  a  picture  to  the  Empress  of  all  the  Eussias  just  a  century  ago. 

They  are  hunting  sea-otters,  however,  just  as  they  did  then, 
and  living  in  precisely  the  same  manner,  save  the  variations  of  out- 
ward demeanor  and  intercourse  due  to  the  teachings  of  the  Greek 
Church.  But  if  you  go  among  them  and  strive  to  have  them  tell 
you  of  the  heroic  battle  made  by  their  ancestors  on  the  Oogak 
"kekour,"  you  will  be  rewarded  by  either  a  stupid  stare  of  vacancy 
or  a  muttered  "Bogue  ezniet"  (God  knows)  ! 

The  deep  recess  of  Eagle  Harbor,  which  lies  between  this 
point  of  earliest  Russian  occupation  and  Kadiak  village,  affords  the 
location  of  another  large  native  village,  and  its  region  is  called  the 
best  grazing  ground  in  all  Alaska.  On  the  surf-beaten  islets  at  the 
mouth  of  the  inlet  a  great  many  sea-lions  are  always  found,  and 
thus  yield  to  these  hunters  of  Orlova  a  rich  return  in  hides  and 
sinews  so  essential  for  the  construction  of  the  "  bidarka."  A  few 
families  of  Creoles  also  reside  here,  who  attend  to  a  small  herd  of 
cattle,  keep  fowls,  and  generally  look  after  their  commissions  as 
middle-men  in  the  sea-otter  revenues. 

From  the  earliest  colonial  time  to  the  present  the  little  village 
of  Karlook,  on  the  north  side  of  the  island,  has  been  the  busiest 
spot  in  the  country.  Here  is  a  salmon-fishing  settlement  right  on 
the  coast  at  the  mouth  of  a  small  river,  where  from  the  ancient  date 
of  Russian  occupation  there  has  been  a  salt  house  and  packing  es- 
tablishment, in  which  the  salt  and  dried  fish  used  throughout  the 
entire  Alaskan  region  was  annually  secured  and  prepared.  To-day 
we  find  two  large  canning  establishments  set  up  and  sustained  by 
San  Francisco  merchants.  The  run  of  salmon  into  this  river  of 
Karlook  at  the  height  of  the  season  is  so  great  that  it  interferes 
with  the  free  movement  of  canoes  in  crossing  the  stream  ;  while  the 
fishermen  of  long  experience  in  such  matters  say  that  twenty  thousand 
barrels  of  the  red-meated  flesh  could  be  easily  secured  and  packed 
away  at  Karlook  every  summer  and  autumn.  This  salmon,*  so 


*  Oncorynchus  nerka.     The  fishing  is  done  entirely  with  seines,  floating 
across  the  river  twenty  to  twenty-five  fathoms  in  length,  three  fathoms  in 


116  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

abundant  here,  is  much  smaller  in  average  size  than  is  the  one  com- 
mon in  Cook's  Inlet — it  does  not  average  ten  pounds  in  weight. 
But  the  rich  red  color  of  its  flesh  is  an  object  of  the  canner,  who 
soon  finds  out  what  public  taste  prefers. 

The  rough,  rocky  islands  of  Trinity,  which  constitute  the  ex- 
treme southern  limit  of  the  Kadiak  influence,  are  the  chosen  resort 
of  sea-lions  and  many  of  the  rare  sea-otter.  Their  capture  lures 
a  few  hardy  natives  to  live  in  close  juxtaposition  to  the  favored 
haunts  of  these  much-prized  animals,  and  they  have  a  most  extended 
hunting  range,  reaching  far  away  down  to  the  westward  and  south- 
ward as  low  as  that  remarkable  barren  island  of  Ookamok,  where 
the  celebrated  "  Botany  Bay,"  of  the  old  Russian  regime,  was  es- 
tablished. That  lonely,  isolated,  desolate  spot  was  the  point  where 
the  old-time  criminals  who  were  guilty  of  murder,  arson,  and  other 
capital  offences,  were  always  shipped,  and  left  largely  to  their  own 
devices  for  a  livelihood.  They  were  literally  entombed  alive  on  this 
islet,  where  nothing  but  moss  and  lichens  and  scant  sphagnum 
could  exist  upon  the  rough,  rocky  surfaces,  where  the  soil  was 
barely  appreciable — elsewhere  there  was  none.  But,  strange  to 
say,  upon  this  island  great  numbers  of  that  lively  little  ground 
squirrel,  Parry's  marmot,  were  found,  and  still  continue  to  be 
found,  which  were  characterized  then  as  now  by  a  peculiar  bluish 
ground-tint  to  their  fur.  This  color  is  most  popular  and  the  one 
so  highly  prized  in  those  universal  coats  or  cloaks  used  by  the 
natives,  and  called  "  parkies  "  by  them. 

Therefore  the  convicts  were  obliged,  in  order  to  get  food  of 
their  liking  and  many  small  luxuries,  to  diligently  hunt  these  little 
animals,  which  they  did,  not  only  for  this  reason  alone,  but  in  self- 
defence  to  kill  time  as  well. 

In  1870  the  descendants  of  the  original  convicts,  and  survivors 
of  recent  transportation  by  Russian  order,  learned  in  some  way 
or  other  that  they  might  lead  a  free  life ;  so  they  then  actually 
removed  en  masse  in  two  large  skin  bidarrahs,  loaded  to  the 
gunwales,  and  made  in  safety  that  long  sea-voyage  which  inter- 
venes between  Ookamok  and  Kadiak  Island.  They  had  about  one 
chance  in  a  hundred  of  getting  over  the  route  alive,  for  the  least  of 
those  chronic  gales  and  storms  that  prevail  here  would  have  swept 


depth,  with  a  three-and-a-half-inch  mesh.     The  whole  native  population  is 
also  employed  in  this  fishery  during  the  summer. 


THE  GREAT  ISLAND   OF   KADIAK.  117 

them  to  the  bottom  of  the  ocean  had  it  arisen  in  the   time   of 
their  passage.* 

A  great  expanse  of  tide-troubled  and  wind-tossed  water  is  bound 
between  the  northern  coast  of  Kadiak  and  the  volcanic  ridges  of 
the  mainland  opposite.  The  Straits  of  Shellikov  are  fair  to  see  on 
the  chart,  but  the  mariner  who  has  once  sailed  into  them,  lured 
there  by  the  false  promise  of  a  sheltered  passage,  never  fails  to 
avoid  the  track  afterward — he  gladly  makes  the  open  detour  of  the 
broad  Pacific.  That  same  precipitous  mountain  range  which  we 
have  gazed  upon  as  it  rose  in  sullen  grandeur  from  the  waters  of 
Cook's  Inlet,  still  fronts  us,  just  as  boldly,  as  it  sweeps  down  the 
entire  three  hundred  miles  of  the  peninsula,  forming  the  southern 
coast  of  that  land.  The  sombre  green  and  blue  timber-cloak,  so 
characteristic  of  its  northern  range,  is  here  replaced  by  the  russet- 
grays  and  brownish-yellows  of  that  sphagnum  and  moss  which 
now  supplant  the  coniferous  forests  of  Cook's  Inlet,  giving  to  the 
picture  a  much  richer  tone.  Several  of  these  peaks  in  this  chain  of 
mountains  thus  extended  down  the  south  coast  of  the  peninsula  are 
five  and  seven  thousand  feet  in  altitude,  their  summits  much  eroded 
and  broken.  They  hold  in  their  lofty  solitudes  a  great  many  little 
glaciers,  that,  however,  never  come  down  to  the  sea  as  they  habit- 
ually do  in  the  Choogatch  and  Elias  Alps.  The  feet  of  these  pen- 
insular mountains  are  washed  by  the  direct  roll  of  the  ocean  waves, 
which  dash  into  innumerable  fiords  and  coves,  studded  with  small, 

*  The  true  reason  for  this  hegira  of  the  convicts  is  a  most  amusing  one.  It 
is  as  follows  :  Shortly  after  the  transfer,  in  1869,  General  Thomas  made  an  ex- 
tended inspection  of  the  Alaskan  posts  on  a  steamer  detailed  for  that  work. 
He  was  accompanied  by  a  certain  representative  of  a  Protestant  Board  of  Mis- 
sions. The  vessel  accidentally  ran  across  Ookamok  Island  when  making  her 
way  to  the  westward  from  Kadiak  and  touched  there,  where,  ignorant  of  the 
fact  that  the  people  were  convicts  and  their  descendants,  moved  by  their  piti- 
ful tales  of  privation,  a  large  amount  of  ship's  stores  were  landed  upon  the 
beach  to  satisfy  the  "  suffering  "  natives :  they  ate,  drank,  and  were  merry,  and 
lived  sumptuously  for  several  months  afterward.  But  an  end  to  these  good 
things  came  at  last ;  the  reaction  in  the  settlement  was  terrible.  So,  urged  by 
its  pangs,  the  penal  colony  determined  to  pack  up  and  move  to  the  nearest 
point  possible,  where,  when  living,  they  could  again  meet,  and  often  too,  their 
kind  benefactors  !  Hence  that  startling  journey  to  find  those  generous  Ameri- 
cans. Lately,  however,  the  traders  at  Kadiak  have  taken  many  of  these  peo- 
ple back  to  Ookamok,  where  they  begged  to  be  allowed  to  go  and  end  their 
lives.  This  is  the  most  desolate  island,  perhaps,  in  all  the  range  of  that  vast 
Aleutian  archipelago. 


118  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

rocky  islets  and  reefs  awash.  A  beautiful  geological  demonstration 
of  the  effect  which  surf-beating  waves  of  the  ocean  have  made 
upon  these  mountains  ages  ago,  is  shown  by  the  plainly  evident  lines 
traced  on  their  flanks  fully  one  thousand  feet  above  the  present 
level  of  the  tide  ;  and  again,  another  terrace  is  sculptured  in  par- 
allel relief  just  above  it,  some  five  hundred  feet  higher — a  silent, 
but  conclusive  showing  of  the  truth  that  the  entire  Aleutian  chain 
has  been  lifted  out,  at  two  successive  periods,  and  up  from  the  sea. 

This  range  of  the  peninsula  is  in  itself  quite  peculiar  from  the 
others  which  we  have  hitherto  noticed  thus  far.  It  differs  from 
their  physiognomy  in  one  respect — the  mountains  and  ridges  them- 
selves are  interrupted  in  one  continuity  down  the  line  of  their 
extension  by  abrupt  depressions.  These  passes,  as  they  appear  to 
be,  are  not  so  in  fact,  but  are  either  low  or  elevated  marshy  plains, 
which  extend  clear  across  the  peninsula  ;  they  create  an  impression 
in  the  mind  of  the  observer  that  at  a  not  very  remote  period,  geo- 
logically speaking,  the  peaks  of  this  peninsula  range  were  then 
islands,  and  the  marshy  portages,  now  elevated,  were  the  bottoms 
of  the  straits  then  between  them.  The  natives  are  continually 
going  to  and  fro  between  the  waters  of  Bering  Sea  and  the 
Pacific  Ocean  over  these  areas  of  swampy  level,  engaged  in  hunt- 
ing reindeer,  bear,  or  in  friendly  intercourse  with  the  settlements. 
The  most  signal  mountain  groups  on  the  peninsula  are  those  of 
Morshovie,  of  Belcovsky,  and  the  Pavlosk  volcanic  cluster — all  joined 
by  low,  wet  isthmian  swales.  The  Shoomagin  volcano  of  Venia- 
minov  is  also  a  noteworthy  peak.  The  peninsula  is  almost  bisected 
between  Moller  and  Zakharov  Bays,  where  the  natives  cross  from 
water  to  water  in  a  half-day's  portage,  and  again  at  Pavlov  Harbor. 
All  these  isolated  or  nearly  detached  mountain  sections  have  a 
striking  resemblance  in  every  respect  to  the  first  large  island, 
Oonimak,  that  is  separated  from  the  mainland  by  the  narrow  and 
unnavigable  Krenitzin  Straits. 

The  Bering  Sea  coast  line  of  the  great  Alaskan  Peninsula  pre- 
sents a  most  radical  contrast  to  that  of  the  Pacific — the  unbroken, 
rocky  abruptness  and  roughness  there  is  here  suddenly  transformed 
right  at  the  very  turn  in  the  Straits  of  Krenitzin,  to  low,  sandy 
reaches  and  slightly  elevated  moorland  tundra,  which  cover  a  wide 
interval  between  the  mountains  and  the  waters  of  Bristol  Bay  and 
Bering  Sea.  The  huge  masses  of  lava,  of  breccia  and  conglomer- 
ate tufa,  that  everywhere  rear  their  black-ebony  shoulders  above 


THE   GREAT   ISLAND   OF   KADIAK. 


119 


the  Pacific  surf,  disappear  entirely  and  suddenly  here.  At  Oogash- 
ik,  where  we  find  a  small  settlement  of  Aleutes  from  Oonalashka, 
hunting  walrus  and  sea-lions,  reindeer  and  bears,  the  first  rocks 
of  granite  and  quartz-porphyries  appear,  every  evidence  of  that 
character  to  the  westward  being  purely  and  essentially  igneous. 

Belcovsky  is  the  metropolis  of  the  Alaskan  Peninsula.  It  is  the 
chief  settlement  of  the  sea-otter  hunters,  and  the  seat  of  the  great- 
est rivalry  and  traffic  in  that  fur-trade,  based  wholly  upon  the  costly 
skins  of  the  "  bobear,"  *  and  which  constitutes  the  only  traffic 
worthy  of  mention  in  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  entire  Aleutian 
and  Kadiak  districts  can  engage.  Here  we  observe  from  our  an- 


The  Walrus-hunting  Village  of  Oogashik. 

chorage  a  little  town  perched  upon  the  summit  of  a  bluff  and 
clinging  to  the  flanks  of  a  precipitous  mountain  that  looms  up  be- 
hind it,  usually  so  wreathed  in  fog  that  its  summit  is  seldom  seen. 
Some  two  hundred  and  sixty  or  seventy  Aleutian  sea-otter  hunters 
and  their  families  are  living  here  in  an  oddly  contrasted  hamlet 
of  frame  houses  and  earthen  barraboras ;  the  freshly  painted  red 
roof  and  yellow  walls  of  a  large,  new  church,  in  the  tower  of  which 
a  pleasing  chime  of  bells  (but  rudely  struck,  however),  arrests  the 
ear  and  the  eye  as  the  most  attractive  single  object  within  the  lim- 
its of  the  place,  f  The  rival  traders  have  run  up  their  flags  very 

*  Literally  "beaver."  The  Russians  always  called  this  animal  the  "sea- 
beaver,"  but  shortened  from  "morskie-bobear  ''  to  the  simple  name. 

f  This  church  was  finished  in  1882— begun  in  1880,  it  cost  $7,000,  every 
cent  being  freely  contributed  by  the  natives. 


120  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

smartly  on  the  poles  that  are  erected  before  their  doors  as  we  swing 
to  anchor  in  the  offing,  and  a  great  bustle  is  evident  among  the 
inhabitants  when  our  boat  pulls  away  for  the  landing,  which  is  a 
sheltered  surf-eddy  right  under  the  blackest  and  most  forbidding 
of  bluffs.  Two  rival  trading-firms  have  each  erected  a  landing 
warehouse  for  the  reception  of  their  stores  upon  the  rocky  beach 
where  we  step  ashore.  The  ascent  to  the  village  above  is  steep, 
but  over  a  sloping  slide  of  mossy  earth  and  rocks.  A  clear,  brawl- 
ing brook  runs  down  through  the  town,  and  we  cross  it  by  a  lit- 
tle foot-bridge  on  our  way.  We  observe  cord- wood  piled  upon  the 
beach,  which  the  traders  have  brought  from  Kadiak,  and  several 
heaps  of  coal  that  had  been  brought  up  as  ballast  from  Vancouver's 
Island.  This  fuel  is  regularly  sold  to  the  natives  here,  who  have 
none,  unless  it  be  a  stray  stick  of  drift-wood  or  the  "chicksa  "  * 
vines,  which  the  women  gather  on  the  hill-sides. 

Sea-otter  hunting  is  the  sole  industry  and  topic  of  conversation, 
for  within  a  radius  of  fifty  miles  from  the  site  of  Belcovsky  fully 
one-half  of  the  entire  Alaskan  catch  of  these  valuable  peltries  is  se- 
cured. Were  they  not  hopelessly  improvident,  shiftless  and  extrava- 
gant, they  would  be  a  really  wealthy  community  ;  but  the  notoriety 
of  the  debauches  here  has  become  a  by- word  and  a  reproach  over 
the  whole  region  between  Cook's  Inlet  and  Attoo.  Every  dollar  of 
their  surplus  earnings  is  squandered  in  orgies,  stimulated  by  the 
vile  "  quass  "  or  beer  which  they  make.  They  dress,  however,  in 
suits  of  every-day  clothing,  such  as  we  wear  ourselves,  when  loung- 
ing about  the  village,  and  their  women  wear  cloth  garments  and 
hats  cut  after  a  fashion  not  very  remote  in  San  Francisco. 

The  neatness  of  the  villages  which  we  have  just  visited  at  Kadiak 
and  Cook's  Inlet  has  no  counterpart  in  Belcovsky,  where,  in  spite  of 
its  much  greater  trade  and  wealth,  the  filth  and  neglect  everywhere 
manifested  among  the  barraboras  and  their  interiors,  are  in  harsh 
and  disagreeable  contrast,  while  the  taciturn,  swelled  heads  of  the 
inmates  speak  volumes  for  the  strength  of  that  carousal  during  the 
night  prior  to  your  arrival.  A  small  frame  house  is  pointed  out 
as  the  school,  where  it  seems  that  those  natives  actually  sustain  a 
teacher  and  send  a  large  percentage  of  their  children.  It  declares 
that  these  people  are  not  vicious  at  heart,  though  they  cannot  re- 
sist intemperance.  They  read  and  write,  however,  principally  in  the 

*  Trailing  tendrils  of  the  Empetrum  nigrum. 


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THE  GREAT   ISLAND   OF   KADIAK.  121 

Aleutian  dialect,  using  an  alphabet  prepared  for  their  race  by  the 
Greek  Catholic  missionaries  in  1810-25.  But,  while  the  large  capt- 
ure of  sea-otters  and  consequent  flow  of  the  traders'  money  and 
supplies  into  this  settlement  brings  these  people  greater  wealth  than 
that  showered  elsewhere,  yet  the  real  physical  misery  of  those 
natives  of  Belcovsky  proves  the  truth  and  points  the  moral  of  a 
very  old  saying  which  declares  that  riches  alone  do  not  bring  con- 
tentment to  the  human  mind,  be  it  ever  so  high  or  ever  so  low. 

A  strong  south  wind  is  springing  up,  and  you  are  told  by 
the  skipper  that  you  must  get  aboard  as  quickly  as  possible,  for 
it  is  sure  destruction  to  his  vessel  if  she  lies  long  at  anchor  in  the 
offing,  since  the  sunken  rocks  and  open  roadstead  are  dangerous. 
The  little  schooner  is  rapidly  put  under  way,  "  beating  out "  in  the 
freshening  gale  and  headed  for  Oonga,  which  is  the  next  settlement 
in  importance,  about  fifty  miles  east.  Sailing-vessels  never  come 
into  Belcovsky,  except  those  of  rival  traders,  because  it  is  the  most 
risky  port  that  the  mariner  has  to  make  in  all  these  waters  of  Alaska. 

Before  leaving  the  sea-otter  emporium  it  is  well  to  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that  at  a  small  indentation  of  this  same  peninsula, 
twenty-nine  miles  to  the  northward,  is  a  settlement  made  up  en- 
tirely of  the  poor  relatives  of  these  Belcovsky  people,  some  forty  or 
fifty  souls,  who,  however,  take  a  great  pride  in  their  superior  health 
and  morality.  They  have  a  little  chapel,  and  enjoy  much  better 
opportunities  for  hunting  bear  and  reindeer.  These  animals,  the 
reindeer  leading,  always  followed  by  the  bears,  come  down  at  regu- 
lar intervals  in  large  herds  from  a  great  moorland  to  the  north- 
east, travelling  on  a  well-beaten  "road"  or  track,  which  leads  clear 
to  the  westernmost  end  of  the  peninsula,  where  those  bovine  road- 
makers  plunge  into  and  cross  the  narrow  Krenitzin  Straits  to  renew 
their  land  march  and  scatter  all  over  the  rugged  and  extended 
tundra  and  mountain  sides  of  Oonimak  Island. 

With  a  line  of  dissipation  and  general  misery  which  the  rich 
commerce  of  Belcovsky  causes  in  that  settlement,  we  ought  not  to 
fail  to  include  the  Protassov  or  Morserovie  village  which  is  located 
on  the  far  end  of  the  peninsula — the  extreme  west  end,  where  a  much 
smaller  community  exists,  though  equally  opulent  and  just  as  disso- 
lute. Here  is  a  settlement  of  nearly  a  hundred  natives,  who  have 
an  annual  average  income  of  about  $1,000  to  each  family.  Yet,  in 
spite  of  this  small  fortune  in  such  a  region,  when  visited  by  an 
agent  of  the  Government  in  1880,  they  shocked  him  by  their  aspect 


122  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

of  abject  physical  misery  and  that  excessive  debauchery  which  had 
stamped  them  more  wretchedly  than  it  had  even  their  cousins  of 
Belcovsky.  These  people,  in  addition  to  their  fine  natural  advan- 
tages of  position  for  hunting  sea-otters,  enjoy  a  location  in  close 
juxtaposition  to  walrus-banks  and  sea-lion  spits  and  islands  else- 
where on  the  Bering  shore,  where  they  find  these  pinnipeds  in  great 
numbers  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  The  flesh,  skins,  blubber, 
and  sinews  are  both  articles  of  essential  use  and  of  luxury  to  them. 
Also,  the  same  reindeer  and  brown-bear  road,  which  we  have  just 
noticed,  passes  close  by  the  village,  so  that  those  desiderata  of  food- 
supply  and  trade  are  very  accessible. 

Near  by  the  village,  less  than  half  a  mile,  as  if  planned  espe- 
cially by  a  merciful  providence,  there  are  a  number  of  hot  sulphur- 
springs  which  would  afford  the  diseased  and  sickly  natives  infinite 
relief,  if  they  could  only  be  induced  to  make  the  necessary  exertion 
to  go  to  them  and  bathe  therein.  Yet  this  officer  of  the  Govern- 
ment declares  that  not  one  of  them  could  be  induced  by  him  to  try 
the  efficacy  of  the  healing  waters — "  It  was  too  far  to  walk !  " 

When  our  little  vessel  comes  to  anchor  in  Delarov  Harbor,  Oonga 
Island,  of  the  Shoomagin  group,  we  see  a  flag  flying  from  the  summit 
of  a  grassy  knoll  which  caps  an  irregular  but  bluffy  headland.  The 
village  lies  directly  over,  and  under  the  shelter  of  that  ridge,  and  it 
opens  quickly  on  our  view  as  we  pull  around  the  point  and  land  with 
our  dingy  in  a  deeply  indented  cove  upon  a  smooth  sand  and  pebbly 
beach.  The  town  is  just  above,  in  its  full  extent,  but  it  is  a  thickly 
clustered  mass  of  fourteen  frame  houses,  twenty  or  twenty-one  bar- 
rabkies,  and  the  ever-present  church.  It  does  not  make  near  as 
much  of  a  spread  as  does  Belcovsky,  although  it  is  quite  as  large. 
This  is  the  chief  codfishing  rendezvous  for  the  white  fishermen  who 
annually  come  up  to  the  Shoomagin  banks  from  San  Francisco  in 
six  or  seven  small  schooners.  The  location  and  surroundings  of 
the  little  hamlet  are  exceedingly  picturesque,  but,  unfortunately, 
though  in  a  somewhat  less  disagreeable  extent,  the  people  here  are 
also  given  over  to  those  Belcovsky  orgies,  inasmuch  as  they,  too,  are 
great  and  successful  otter-hunters,  and  have  an  income  of  over  six 
hundred  dollars  for  each  family,  which  wealth  seems  to  demoralize 
far  more  than  it  comforts  their  existence. 

The  strong  southerly  and  southeast  winds  that  prevail  here 
during  the  summer  season  are  the  most  severe,  and,  strange  to 
say,  they  are  the  ones  which  are  the  coldest  and  the  chilliest — a 


THE   GREAT   ISLAND   OF   KADIAK.  123 

north  wind  is  always  warmer !  These  south  winds  bring  to  Oon- 
ga  its  foggiest  weather,  its  heaviest  rains,  and  raise  such  a  ground 
swell  in  the  village  harbor  that  the  craft  therein  are  often  compelled 
to  go  to  sea  for  safety,  and  it  always  drives  the  fishermen  from  the 
banks  outside.  Those  cod-banks  are  best,  off  the  southerly  range  of 
the  islands,  and  hence,  when  a  southeaster  blows,  the  schooners  are 
on  a  most  dangerous  lee-shore.  They  seldom  ever  take  the  risks 
of  riding  out  such  a  gale.  Old  skippers  who  have  fished  for 
forty  years  on  the  Grand  Banks  and  "Georges,"  for  the  Gloucester 
and  Boston  markets,  declare  that  the  fury  of  the  sea  and  wind  is 
greater  off  the  Shoomagins  in  a  southeaster  than  anything  of  the 
kind  experienced  on  the  Atlantic.  These  wild  gales  become 
stronger,  loaded  with  sleet  and  snow,  as  winter  approaches,  so 
that  by  the  middle  or  end  of  November,  until  next  April,  all  sailing- 
craft  are  practically  driven  from  the  fishing  grounds. 

The  same  method  of  catching  cod  is  employed  here  as  practised 
by  our  Gloucester  men,  in  only  one  respect,  however :  the  long, 
buoyed  lines  are  not  set  out  and  regularly  under-run,  but  instead, 
small  boats  and  dories,  with  two  men  in  each,  are  put  off  from  the 
schooners,  and  fish  with  hand-lines,  using  what  is  known  as  "11- 
inch"  and  "12-inch"  hooks.  Halibut,  and  "squid,"  or  cuttle-fish, 
make  the  best  bait.  A  good,  smart  man,  if  he  is  fortunate,  will  haul 
up  four  hundred  codfish  in  a  day's  steady  labor,  but  this  is  an  ex- 
traordinary streak  of  luck.  An  average  of  three  hundred  every  fair 
day  is  one  that  gives  the  highest  satisfaction.  These  fish  are  taken 
on  board  of  the  schooner,  salted,  and  not  touched  again  until  the 
cargo  is  broken  for  re-drying  and  curing  at  several  points  chosen 
for  that  purpose  in  California.  At  first  our  people  were  disposed 
to  hire  the  natives  up  here  to  do  this  hand-line  fishing,  and  they 
did  so  ;  but  a  patient  trial  has  demonstrated  the  fact  that  it  pays 
to  employ  our  own  men  instead,  even  at  greatly  advanced  wages. 
The  Aleutes  are  docile,  and  do  exceedingly  well  in  spurts,  but  they 
do  not  like  to  work  in  steady,  well-sustained  periods  of  any  great 
length  at  a  time. 

Were  it  not  for  the  intense  physical  discomfort  of  the  rapidly 
recurring  fog,  sleet,  and  rain-laden  gales,  Oonga  would  undoubt- 
edly be  a  site  well  chosen  for  a  neat  New  England  fishing  village. 
Many  of  those  white  men  now  employed  up  there  in  the  cod-fishery 
declare  that  they  would  bring  their  wives  and  children  into  the 
country,  to  permanently  settle,  if  they  thought  that  they  could  be 


124  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

happy  under  the  conditions  of  climate  which  prevail.  But  they 
argue  that  where  they  themselves  cannot  peacefully  exist  the  year 
round,  it  would  be  idle  to  suppose  that  a  civilized  settlement  could 
be  well  established.  We  will  find,  however,  quite  a  number  of 
genial,  sociable  fellows,  men  of  our  race,  who  are  well  educated, 
and  who  have  had  excellent  opportunities,  and  who  to-day  are 
roaming  here,  there,  and  everywhere  in  Alaska,  hunting,  fishing, 
and  trading,  or  prospecting.  They  appear  to  be  entirely  happy, 
not  a  bit  cynical,  and  never  express  the  slightest  desire  to  return 
with  us  to  the  world  which  they  have  left  behind  them  voluntarily. 
Alaska  to  them  is  a  perfect  Mecca  of  peace,  and  they  have  no  de- 
sire  to  see  it  changed.  They  unite  usually  in  saying  that  their 
wants  are  few,  easily  supplied,  and  they  scarcely  remember  what 
care  was — it  does  not  trouble  them  now. 

The  cod-fishermen  do  not  make  their  working  headquarters  in 
this  village,  but  across,  over  the  bay  on  Popov  Islet,  at  a  spot  which 
is  called  Pirate  Cove.  They  are  not  annoyed  by  idle  villagers  there, 
and  are  also  somewhat  nearer  to  the  fishing-resorts  which  are  just 
outside.  They  are  most  likely  not  far  from  that  spot  where  Bering 
landed,  August  30,  1741,  to  bury  one  of  his  seamen  named  Shoom- 
agin,  and  to  refill  his  water-casks.  The  exact  locality,  or  even  the 
precise  islet  of  the  many  that  form  this  Shoomagin  group,  on 
which  the  then  sick  and  sadly  demoralized  explorer  and  his  crew 
interred  the  remains  of  their  dead  comrade,  will  never  be  satisfac- 
torily established ;  the  cross  of  wood  set  up  was  immediately 
pulled  down,  after  his  departure,  by  the  natives,  who  were  then 
decidedly  hostile,  and  who  eyed  him  and  his  vessel  with  unaffected 
dislike  and  apprehension.*  When  the  St.  Peter,  six  days  later, 
hauled  off  from  those  islands  and  turned  her  prow  for  Kamchatka, 
perhaps  that  gloomy,  timid  Dane  commanding  her  may  have  had 
an  astral  premonition  of  the  wreck  of  this  vessel,  which  soon  fol- 
lowed— and  his  own  death  too,  in  a  self-made  sand  grave  beneath 
the  black  shadows  of  the  bluffs  at  "Kommandor" — this  may  have 
caused  him  to  earn  that  reproach  which  has  been  so  lavishly  laid 
upon  his  conduct  of  a  most  remarkable  and  disastrous  voyage. 

The  Shoomagins  are  all  bold  and  bluffy,  with  high  uplands  and 


*  From  the  record  made  in  the  ship's  log  it  would  seem  most  likely  that 
he  landed  on  either  Popov  Island,  or  else  Nogai ;  the  description  will  fit  either 
locality. 


THE   GREAT   ISLAND   OF   KADIAK.  125 

lofty  ridges ;  on  Oonga  the  most  elevated  summits  are  to  be  seen. 
Bare  of  timber,  but  covered  with  sphagnum  and  mosses  and 
clumps  of  dwarfed  crab-apples  and  willows,  they  stand  as  rock- 
ribbed  break-waters  against  the  full  sweep  of  the  mighty  uninter- 
rupted roll  of  a  vast  ocean.  The  surf  that  dashes  foaming  and 
booming  upon  their  firm  foundations  is  of  unrivalled  force,  and 
fear-inspiring. 

Oonga  Island  has  also  been  the  base  of  a  very  extended  and 
thorough  attempt  to  develop  a  large  vein  of  coal  which  is  found 
cropping  out  on  the  face  of  a  bluff  in  a  small  inlet  of  its  north 
shore.  The  oldest  coal-mine  in  the  region  of  Alaska  is  located  in 
Cook's  Inlet  near  its  mouth,  at  a  spot  still  indicated  on  maps  as 
Coal  Harbor.  Here  the  Russians,  eager  to  be  able  to  obtain  fuel 
for  the  use  of  their  steam-vessels,  began,  in  1852,  a  most  active  and 
systematic  series  of  mining  operations ;  they  brought  machinery 
and  ran  it  by  steam-power ;  experienced  German  miners  were 
engaged  to  superintend  and  direct  a  large  force  of  Muscovitic 
laborers  sent  up  from  Sitka.  In  1857  the  work  had  been  so  ener- 
getically pushed  that  shafts  had  been  sunk,  and  a  drift  run  into 
the  vein  for  a  distance  of  one  thousand  seven  hundred  feet ;  during 
this  period,  and  three  following  years,  two  thousand  seven  hundred 
tons  of  coal  were  mined,  the  value  of  which  was  forty-six  thou- 
sand rubles,  but  the  result  was  a  net  loss.  The  thickness  of  the 
vein  was  found  to  vary  from  nine  to  twelve  feet,  and  its  extent 
was  practically  unlimited.  But  the  Russians  found  out  then,  as 
our  people  at  Oonga  did  afterward,  that  this  Alaskan  lignite  was 
utterly  unfit  for  use  in  the  furnaces  of  the  steamers — that  it  was  so 
highly  charged  with  sulphur  as  to  burn  like  a  flash  and  eat  out, 
fuse  and  warp  the  grate-bars — even  melting  down  the  smoke- 
stacks! Steam-vessels  now  bring  their  own  coal  with  them  from 
San  Francisco,  Puget  Sound  or  Nanaimo,  or  have  it  sent  up  from 
there  by  sailing-tenders  to  depots  previously  designated.* 

As  we  leave  the  sheltering  bluffs  of  Oonga,  our  course  seems  to 

*  Captain  F.  W.  Beechey  in  his  voyage  of  the  Blossom,  1825-27,  discov- 
ered and  located  at  Cape  Beaufort,  in  the  Arctic  Ocean  and  on  the  Alaskan 
coast,  a  vein  of  coal ;  this  has  been  subsequently  revisited  and  mined  to  a 
small  extent  by  the  officers  of  the  Revenue  marine  cutters  of  our  Government, 
who  pronounce  it  very  satisfactory  for  steaming  purposes.  Its  situation,  how- 
ever, is  so  remote  that  it  has  no  economic  significance,  and  no  harbor  is  there 
for  a  vessel  of  any  kind. 


126  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

be  laid  directly  south. ;  so  much  so,  that  for  once  we  express  our 
surprise  to  the  skipper,  who,  feeling  sure  that  he  understands  our 
dread  of  losing  time  in  reaching  Oonalashka,  spreads  out  his  chart 
and  calls  us  to  the  table.  A  moment's  inspection  shows  the  wisdom 
of  the  roundabout  course,  for  a  forest  of  rough,  rocky  islets  studs 
the  ocean  directly  to  the  west  and  many  to  the  south.  To  sail 
through  the  intricate  passages  of  the  Chernaboors  and  the  reefs  of 
Saanak  would  be  to  invite  certain  destruction.  Therefore,  as  we 
make  a  long  detour  to  clear  the  path  of  our  progress  from  all  dan- 
ger, we  will  give  the  reader  some  interesting  facts  relative  to  the 
chase  of  the  sea- otter,  which  is  the  sole  object  of  those  natives  who 
hunt  in  this  district. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   QUEST   OF   THE   OTTER. 

Searching  for  the  Otter. — Exposure  and  Danger  in  Hunting  Sea-otters. — The 
Fortitude,  Patience,  and  Skill  of  the  Captor. — Altasov  and  his  Band  of  Cruel 
Cossacks. — Feverish  Energy  of  the  Early  Russian  Sea-otter  Traders. — Their 
Shameful  Excesses.  — Greed  for  Sea-otter  Skins  Leads  the  Russians  to  Ex- 
plore the  Entire  Alaskan  Coast,  1760-1780.— Great  Numbers  of  Sea-otters 
when  they  were  First  Discovered  in  Alaska. — Their  Partial  Extermina- 
tion in  1836-40.— More  Secured  during  the  Last  Five  Years  than  in  all 
the  Twenty  Years  Preceding. — What  is  an  Otter? — A  Description  x>f  its 
Strange  Life.— Its  Single  Skin  sometimes  Worth  $500.— The  Typical  Sea- 
otter  Hunter. — A  Description  of  Him  and  his  Family. — Hunting  the  Sea- 
otter  the  Sole  Remunerative  Industry  of  the  Aleutians. — Gloomy,  Storm- 
beaten  Haunts  of  the  Otter. — Saanak,  the  Grand  Rendezvous  of  the 
Hunters.— The  "Surround"  of  the  Otter.— "  Clubbing"  the  Otter.— 
41  Netting ''  the  Otter.—"  Surf  -  shooting  "  Them. 

LITTLE  does  my  lady  think,  as  she  contemplates  the  rich  shimmer 
of  the  ebony  sea-otter  trimming  to  her  new  sealskin  sacque,  that 
the  quest  of  the  former  has  engaged  thousands  of  men  during  the 
last  century  in  exhaustive  deeds  of  hazardous  peril  and  extreme  dar- 
ing, and  does  to-day — that  the  possession  of  the  the  sea-otter's  coat 
calls  for  more  venturesome  labor  and  inclement  exposure  on  the 
part  of  the  hunter  than  is  put  forth  in  the  chase  of  any  other  fur- 
bearing  or  economic  animal  known  to  savage  or  civilized  man.  No 
wonder  that  it  is  costly ;  what  abundant  reason  that  it  should  be 
rare  ! 

The  rugged,  storm-beaten  resorts  of  the  sea-otter,  its  wariness 
and  cunning,  and  the  almost  incredible  fortitude  and  patience,  skill 
and  bravery,  of  its  semi-civilized  captor,  have  so  impressed  the 
writer  that  he  feels  constrained  to  rearrange  his  notes  and  touch  up 
his  field-sketches  made  upon  the  subject-matter  of  this  chapter  sev- 
eral years  ago,  while  cruising  in  Alaskan  waters,  so  that  he  may  give 
to  the  readers  of  this  work  the  first  full  or  fair  idea  of  the  topic  ever 
put  into  type  and  engraving. 


128  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

Feodor  Altasov,  with  a  band  of  Russian  Cossacks  *  and  Tartar 
"  promishlyniks,"  were  the  pioneers  of  civilized  exploration  in  East- 
ern Siberia,  and  finally  arrived  at  the  head  of  the  great  Kamchatkan 
Peninsula,  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Here  they 
found,  first  of  all  their  race,  the  rare,  and  to  them  the  exceedingly 
valuable,  fur  of  the  sea-otter.  The  animal  bearing  this  pelage  then 
was  abundant  on  that  coast,  and  not  prized  above  the  seals  and  sea- 
lions  by  the  natives  who  displayed  their  peltries  to  the  ardent  Rus- 
sians, and  who  in  barter  asked  little  or  nothing  extra  from  the  white 
men  in  return.  The  feverish  eagerness  of  the  Slavonians,  quickly 
displayed,  to  secure  these  choice  skins,  so  excited  the  natives  as  to 
result  very  soon  in  the  practical  extirpation  of  the  "kahlan,"  as  they 
termed  it,  from  the  entire  region  of  the  Kamschadales.  The  greedy 
fur-hunters  then  rifled  graves  and  stripped  the  living  of  every  scrap 
of  the  precious  object  of  their  search,  and,  for  the  time  being, 
searched  in  vain  for  other  haunts  of  the  otter. 

Along  by  the  close  of  1743,  the  survivors  of  Bering's  second  voy- 
age of  exploration  and  Tscherikov  brought  back  to  Petropaulovsk  an 
enormous  number  of  skins  which  they  had  secured  on  the  Aleutian 
and  Commander  Islands,  until  then  unknown  to  the  Kamchatkans 
or  the  Russians.  In  spite  of  the  rude  appliances  and  scanty  re- 
sources at  the  command  of  these  eager  men,  they  fitted  out  rude 
wooden  shallops  and  boldly  pushed  themselves  over  dark  and  tem- 
pestuous seas  to  the  unknown  and  rumored  resorts  of  the  sea-otter. 
In  this  manner  and  by  this  impulse  the  discovery  of  the  Aleutian 
Islands  and  the  mainland  of  Alaska  was  fully  determined,  between 
1745  and  1763.  In  this  enterprise  some  twenty-five  or  thirty  differ- 
ent individuals  and  companies,  with  quite  a  fleet  of  small  vessels  and 
hundreds  of  men,  were  engaged ;  and  so  thorough  and  energetic 

*  The  Cossacks  who  came  with  Altasov  were  rough-looking  fellows  of 
small  size,  lean  and  wiry,  with  large,  thin-lipped  mouths  and  very  dark  skins. 
Most  of  them  were  the  offspring  of  Creole  Russian  Tartars  and  women  from 
the  native  tribes  of  Siberia.  They  were  filthy  in  their  habits.  Naturally 
cruel,  they  placed  no  restraint  upon  their  actions  when  facing  the  docile 
Aleutes,  and  indulged  in  beastly  excesses  at  frequent  intervals.  The  custom 
of  the  Cossack  hunters  after  establishing  on  an  island,  was  to  divide  the 
command  into  small  parties,  each  of  which  was  stationed  in  or  close  by  a 
native  settlement.  The  chief  or  head  Aleut  was  induced  by  presents  to  assist 
in  compelling  and  urging  his  people  to  hunt.  When  they  returned,  their 
catch  was  taken  and  a  few  trifling  presents  made,  such  as  beads  and  tobacco- 
leaf. 


THE  QUEST  OF  THE  OTTER.  129 

were  they  in  their  search  and  stimulated  capture  of  the  coveted 
animal,  that,  along  by  the  period  of  1772-74,  the  catch  of  this  un- 
happy beast  had  dwindled  down  from  thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands at  first,  to  hundreds  and  tens  of  hundreds  at  last.  When 
the  Russian  traders  opened  up  the  Aleutian  .Islands  they  found  the 
natives  commonly  wearing  sea-otter  cloaks,  which  they  willingly 
parted  with  at  first  for  trifles,  not  placing  any  especial  value  upon 
the  otter,  as  they  did  upon  the  bodies  of  the  hair-seal  and  sea-lion, 
the  flesh  and  skins  of  which  were  vastly  more  palatable  to  them 
and  serviceable.  But  the  fierce  competition  and  raised  bidding  of 
the  greedy  traders  soon  fired  the  savages  into  hot  and  incessant 
hunting.  During  the  first  decade  or  two  of  pursuit  the  numbers 
of  these  animals  taken  all  along  the  Aleutian  chain  and  down  the 
entire  northwest  coast  as  far  as  Oregon,  were  so  great  that  they 
appear  fabulous  in  comparison  with  the  exhibit  made  now.* 

The  result  of  this  warfare  upon  sea-otters,  with  ten  hunters 
then  where  there  is  one  to-day,  was  not  long  delayed.  Everywhere 
throughout  the  whole  coast-line  frequented  by  them,  a  rapid  and 
startling  diminution  set  in  ;  so  much  so,  that  it  soon  became  diffi- 
cult to  get  from  places  where  a  thousand  were  easily  taken,  as 
many  as  twenty-five  or  thirty.  When  the  region  known  as  Alaska 
came  into  our  possession,  the  Russians  were  taking  between  four 
and  five  hundred  sea-otters  annually  from  the  Aleutian  Islands  and 
South  of  the  Peninsula  and  Kadiak,  with  perhaps  one  hundred  and 
fifty  more  from  Cook's  Inlet,  Yakootat,  and  the  Sitkan  district,  the 
Hudson  Bay  traders  and  others  getting  some  two  hundred  more 
from  the  coasts  of  Queen  Charlotte's  and  Vancouver's  Islands,  and 
Gray's  Harbor,  Washington  Territory. 

Now  during  the  last  year,  instead  of  less  than  seven  hundred 
skins  taken  as  above  specified,  our  traders  have  secured  more  than 
four  thousand.  This  immense  difference  is  not  due  to  the  fact  of 
a  proportionate  increase  of  sea-otters — that  is  not  evident — but  it 
is  due  to  the  keen  competition  of  our  people,  who  have  reanimated 
the  organization  anew  of  old-fashioned  hunting-parties,  after  the 

*  In  1804  Baranor  (the  Colonial  Governor)  went  from  Sitka  to  the  Okotsk 
with  fifteen  thousand  sea-otter  skins,  that  were  worth  as  much  then  as  they  are 
now,  viz.,  fully  $1, 000,000.  Last  year  the  returns  from  Alaska  and  the  north- 
west coast  scarcely  foot  up  four  thousand  skins;  but  they  yielded  at  least 
$200,000  directly  to  the  native  hunters,  being  ten  times  better  pay  than 
they  ever  brought  under  Russian  rule  to  these  people. 
9 


130  OUE  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

style  of  Baranov's  bateaux.  As  matters  are  now  conducted,  the 
hunting-parties  do  not  let  the  sea-otter  have  a  day's  rest  during  the 
whole  year  :  parties  relieve  each  other  in  orderly,  steady  succession, 
and  a  continual  warfare  is  maintained.  Stimulated  by  our  people, 
this  persistence  is  rendered  still  more  deadly  to  the  kahlan  by  the 
use  of  rifles  of  our  best  make,  which,  in  the  hands  of  the  young 
and  ambitious  natives,  in  spite  of  the  warnings  of  their  old  sires, 
must  result  in  the  virtual  extermination  of  that  marine  beast* 

This  is  the  more  important  because  all  the  world's  supply  comes 
from  the  North  Pacific  and  Bering  Sea,  and  upon  its  continuance 
between  four  thousand  and  five  thousand  semi-civilized  natives  of 
Alaska  depend  absolutely  and  wholly  for  the  means  by  which  they 
are  enabled  to  live  beyond  simple  barbarism  ;  its  chase  and  the 
proceeds  of  its  capture  furnish  the  only  employment  offered  by 
their  country,  and  the  revenue  by  which  they  can  feed  and  clothe 
themselves  as  they  do,  and,  by  so  doing,  appear  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  much  superior  to  their  Indian  neighbors  of  Southeast- 
ern Alaska,  or  their  Eskimo  cousins  of  Bering  Sea. 

The  sea-otter,  like  the  fur-seal,  is  another  striking  illustration 
of  an  animal  long  known  and  highly  prized  in  the  commercial 
world,  yet  respecting  the  life  and  habits  of  which  nothing  definite 
has  been  ascertained  or  published.  The  reason  for  this  is  obvious, 
for,  save  the  natives  who  hunt  them,  no  one  properly  qualified  to 
write  has  ever  had  an  opportunity  of  observing  the  Enhydra  so  as 
to  study  it  in  a  state  of  nature,  inasmuch  as  of  all  the  shy,  sensitive 
beasts  upon  the  capture  of  which  man  sets  any  value  whatever, 
this  creature  is  the  most  keenly  on  the  alert  and  difficult  to  obtain  ; 
and,  also,  like  the  fur-seal,  it  possesses,  to  us,  the  enhancing  value 

*  It  is  a  fact,  coincident  with  the  diminution  of  the  sea-otter  life  under 
the  pressure  of  Russian  greed,  that  the  population  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  fell 
off  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  ratio.  The  Slavonians  regarded  the  lives 
of  these  people  as  they  did  those  of  dogs,  and  treated  them  accordingly.  They 
impressed  and  took,  under  Baranov's  orders,  in  1790-1806,  and  his  subordinates, 
hunting-parties  of  five  hundred  to  one  thousand  picked  Aleutes,  eleven  or 
twelve  hundred  miles  to  the  eastward  from  their  homes  at  Oonalashka,  Oom- 
nak,  Akoon,  and  Akootan.  This  terrible  sea-journey  was  made  by  these 
natives  in  skin  "baidars"  and  bidarkies,  traversing  one  of  the  wildest  and 
roughest  of  coasts.  They  were  used  not  only  for  the  drudgery  of  otter-hunting 
in  Cook's  Inlet  and  the  Sitkan  archipelago,  but  forced  to  fight  the  Koloshians 
and  other  savages  all  the  way  up  and  down  those  inhospitable  coasts.  That 
soon  destroyed  them— very  few  ever  got  back  to  the  Aleutian  Islands  alive- 


THE   QUEST   OF   THE   OTTER. 


131 


and  charm  of  being  principally  confined  in  its  geographical  distri- 
bution to  our  own  shores  of  the  Northwest.  A  truthful  account  of 
the  strange,  vigilant  life  of  the  sea-otter,  and  the  hardships  and  the 
perils  of  its  human  hunters,  would  surpass,  if  we  could  give  it  all, 
the  novelty  and  the  interest  of  a  most  weird  and  attractive  work  of 
fiction. 

The  sea-otter  is  widely  removed  from  close  relationship  to  our 
common  land-otter.  Unlike  this  latter  example,  it  seldom  visits  the 
shore,  and  then  only  when  the  weather  is  abnormally  stormy  at  sea. 
Instead  of  being  a  fish-eater,  like  Lutra  canadensis,  it  feeds  almost 
wholly  upon  clams,  crabs,  mussels,  and  echinoderms,  or  "sea- 
urchins,"  as  might  be  inferred  from  its  peculiar  flat  molars  of  den- 


The  Kahlan  or  Sea-otter. 

tition.  It  is,  when  adult,  an  animal  that  will  measure  from  three 
and  a  half  to  four  and  a  half  feet  in  length  from  nose  to  root  of  its 
short,  stumpy  tail.  The  general  contour  of  the  body  is  strongly 
suggestive  of  the  beaver,  but  the  globose  shape  and  savage  expres- 
sion of  the  creature's  head  are  peculiar  to  it  alone.  The  small, 
black,  snaky  eyes  gleam  with  the  most  wild  and  vindictive  light 
when  the  owner  is  startled ;  the  skin  lies  over  its  body  in  loose 
folds,  so  that  when  taken  hold  of  in  lifting  the  carcass  out  of  the 
water,  it  is  slack  and  draws  up  like  the  elastic  hide  on  the  nape 
of  a  young  dog.  This  pelt,  when  removed  in  skinning,  is  cut  only 
at  the  posteriors,  and  the  body  is  drawn  forth,  turning  the  skin 
inside  out,  and  in  that  shape  it  is  partially  stretched,  air-dried,  and 
is  so  lengthened  by  this  process  that  it  gives  the  erroneous  impres- 
sion of  having  been  taken  from  an  animal  the  frame  of  which  was 


132  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

at  least  six  feet  in  length,  with  the  proportionate  girth  and  shape 
of  a  mink  or  weasel. 

There  is  no  sexual  dissimilarity  in  color  or  size,  and  both  male 
and  female  manifest  the  same  intense  shyness  and  aversion  to  man, 
coupled  with  the  greatest  solicitude  for  their  young,  which  they 
bring  into  existence  at  all  seasons  of  the  year,  for  the  natives  capt- 
ure young  pups  in  every  calendar  month.  As  the  hunters  never 
have  found  the  mothers  and  their  offspring  on  the  rocks  or  beaches, 
they  affirm  that  the  birth  of  a  sea-otter  takes  place  on  the  numer- 
ous floating  kelp-beds  which  cover  large  areas  of  the  ocean  south  of 
the  Aleutian  chain  and  off  the  entire  expanse  of  the  northwest 
coast.  Here,  literally  "  rocked  in  the  cradle  of  the  deep,"  the  young 
kahlan  is  brought  forth  and  speedily  inured  to  the  fury  of  fierce 
winds  and  combing  seas.  Upon  these  algoid  rafts  the  Aleutes  often 
surprise  them  sporting  one  with  the  other,  for  they  are  said  to  be 
very  playful,  and  one  old  hunter  told  the  writer  that  he  had  watched 
a  sea-otter  for  half  an  hour  as  it  lay  upon  its  back  in  the  rollers 
and  tossed  a  bit  of  sea-weed  up  into  the  air  from  paw  to  paw,  ap- 
parently taking  great  delight  in  catching  it  before  it  fell  into  the 
water. 

The  sea-otter  mother  clasps  her  young  to  her  breast  between 
her  fore-paws,  and  stretches  herself  at  full  length  on  her  back  in  the 
ocean  when  she  desires  to  sleep,  and  she  suckles  it  also  in  this  po- 
sition. The  pup  cannot  live  without  its  mother,  though  frequent 
attempts  have  been  made  by  hunters  to  raise  them,  for  the  lit- 
tle animals  are  very  often  captured  alive  and  wholly  uninjured  ; 
but,  like  some  other  animals,  they  seem  to  be  so  deeply  imbued 
with  fear  or  dislike  of  man  that  they  invariably  die  of  self-imposed 
starvation.  The  enhydra  is  not  polygamous,  and  it  is  seldom,  in- 
deed, that  the  natives,  when  out  in  search  of  it,  ever  see  more  than 
one  animal  at  a  time.  The  flesh  is  very  unpalatable,  highly  charged 
with  a  rank  taste  and  odor.  A  single  pup  is  born,  as  the  rule,  about 
fifteen  inches  in  length  and  provided  with  a  natal  coat  of  coarse, 
brownish,  grizzled  hair  and  fur,  the  head  and  nape  being  rather 
brindled,  and  the  nose  and  cheeks  whitish-gray,  with  the  roots  of 
the  hair  everywhere  much  darker  next  to  the  skin.  From  this  poor 
condition  of  fur  at  birth  the  otter  gradually  improves  as  it  grows 
older,  shading  darker,  finer,  thicker,  and  longer  by  the  time  they 
are  two  years  of  age.  Then  they  rapidly  pass  into  prime  skins  of 
the  most  lustrous  softness  and  ebony  shimmering,  though  the  creat- 


THE  QUEST   OF  THE  OTTER.  133 

ure  is  not  full-grown  until  it  has  passed  its  fourth  season.  The 
rufous-white  nose  and  mustache  of  the  pup  are  not  changed  in  the 
pelage  of  the  adult,  but  remain  constant  through  life.  The  whis- 
kers are  short,  white,  and  fine.  So  much  for  the  biology  of  the 
sea-otter.  Now  we  turn  to  the  still  more  interesting  one  of  its 
captors. 

The  typical  hunter  is  an  Aleutian  Islander  or  a  native  of  Kadiak. 
He  is  not  a  large  man — rather  below  our  standard — say  five  feet 
five  or  six  inches  in  stature.  There  are  notable  exceptions  to  this 
rule,  for  some  of  them  are  over  six  feet,  while  others  are  veritable 
dwarfs — resemble  gnomes  more  than  anybody  else.  He  wears  the 
peculiar  expression  of  a  Japanese  more  than  any  other.  His 
hair  is  long,  coarse,  and  black ;  face  is  broad  ;  high,  prominent 
cheek  bones,  with  an  insignificant  flattened  nose  ;  the  eyes  are 
small,  black,  and  set  wide  in  his  head  under  faintly  marked  eye- 
brows, just  a  faint  suggestion  of  Mongolian  obliquity  ;  the  lips  are 
full,  the  mouth  large,  and  the  lower  jaw  square  and  prognathous ; 
the  ears  are  small,  likewise  his  feet  and  hands  ;  his  skin  in  youth  is 
often  quite  fair,  with  a  faint  flush  in  the  cheeks,  but  soon  weathers 
into  a  yellowish-brown  that  again  seams  into  deep  flabby  wrinkles 
with  middle  and  old  age.  He  has  a  full,  even  set  of  good  teeth, 
while  his  body,  as  might  be  inferred  from  his  habit  of  living  so 
much  of  his  life  in  the  cramped  "bidarka"*  or  skin  boat,  is  well 
developed  in  the  chest  and  arms,  but  decidedly  sprung  at  the  knees, 
and  he  is  slightly  unsteady  in  his  pigeon-toed  gait. 

The  mate  of  this  hunter  was  when  young  a  very  good-looking 
young  woman,  who  never  could  honestly  be  called  handsome,  yet 
she  was  then  and  is  now  very  far  from  being  hideous  or  repulsive. 


*  The  "  bidarka  ''  is  a  light  framework  of  wooden  timbers  and  withes  very 
tightly  lashed  together  with  sinews  in  the  form  indicated  by  my  illustrations. 
It  is  covered  with  untanned  sea-lion  skins,  which  are  sewed  on  over  it  while 
they  are  wet  and  soft.  When  the  skins  dry  out  they  contract,  and  bind  the 
frame,  and  are  as  taut  as  the  parchment  of  a  well-strung  bass-drum.  Then 
the  native  smears  the  whole  over  with  thick  seal-oil,  which  keeps  the  water 
out  of  the  pores  of  the  skin  for  quite  a  long  period  and  prevents  the  slacken- 
ing of  the  taut  binding  of  the  little  vessel  for  twenty-four  to  thirty  hours  at  a 
single  time.  Then  the  bidarka  must  be  hauled  out  and  allowed  to  dry  off  in 
the  wind,  when  it  again  becomes  hard  and  tight.  Most  of  them  are  made  with 
two  man-holes,  some  have  three,  and  a  great  many  have  but  one.  The  otter- 
hunters  always  go  in  pairs,  or,  in  other  words,  use  two-holed  bidurkies. 


134  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

She  partakes,  somewhat  mellowed  down,  of  the  same  characteristics 
which  we  have  just  sketched  in  the  face  and  form  of  her  husband. 
As  they  live  to-day,  they  are  married  and  sustain  this  relation,  shel- 
tered in  their  own  hut  or  "barrabkie."  They  have  long,  long  ago 
ceased  to  dress  themselves  in  skins,  and  now  appear  in  store  clothes 
and  cotton  gowns,  retaining,  however,  their  characteristic  water- 
proof garment  known  as  the  "kamlayka"  and  the  odd  boots  known 
as  "tarbosars,"  in  which  they  are  always  enveloped  in  wet  weather, 
or  whenever  they  venture  out  to  sea  in  their  bidarka.  They  dress 
themselves  up  on  Sundays,  when  at  home,  in  boots  and  shoes  and 
stockings  of  San  Francisco  make.  He  wears  a  conventional 
"  beaver "  or  plug  hat  often,  and  she  affects  a  gay  worsted  hood, 
although,  on  account  of  the  steady  persistence  of  high  winds,  he 
prefers  a  smart  marine-band  cap,  such  as  our  soldiers  on  fatigue- 
duty  wear.  He  is,  however,  inclined  to  be  quite  sober,  not  giving 
much  attention  to  display  or  color,  as  is  the  habit  of  semi-civilized 
people  everywhere  else ;  but  he  does  lavish  the  greatest  care  and 
labor  over  the  decoration  of  his  bidarka,  and  calls  upon  his  wife  to 
ornament  the  seams  of  his  water-repellant  kamlayka  and  tarbosars 
with  the  gayest  embroidery,  and  tufts  of  bright  hair  and  feathers, 
and  lines  of  cunning  goose-quill  work. 

Mrs.  Kahgoon,  however,  is  a  true  woman.  She  naturally  desires 
all  the  bright  ribbons  and  cheap  jewellery  which  the  artful  trader 
exhibits  to  her  longing  eyes  in  his  store,  that  stands  so  near  and  so 
handy  to  her  barrabkie,  and  her  means  only  limit  the  purchase 
which  she  makes  of  these  prized  desiderata.  She  dresses  her  hair 
in  braids,  as  a  rule,  and  twists  them  up  behind.  She  seldom  wears 
a  bonnet  or  hat,  but  has  a  handkerchief,  generally  of  cotton,  some- 
times silken,  always  tied  over  her  head,  and  when  she  goes,  as  she 
often  does,  out  to  call  on  a  neighboring  spinster  or  madam,  or  to 
the  store,  she  throws  a  small  woollen  shawl  over  head  and  shoul- 
ders, holding  it  drawn  together  under  her  chin  by  one  hand.  As 
we  have  intimated,  she  dresses  principally  in  cotton  fabrics,  with 
skirts,  overskirts,  white  stockings,  etc.  ;  but  when  she  was  a  girl, 
and  much  more  than  that,  she  usually  went,  with  her  legs  and  feet 
bare,  into  the  teeth  of  biting  winds  and  over  frosty  water  and 
wood-paths. 

The  domestic  life  of  this  hunter  and  his  wife  is  all  bound  up 
within  the  shelter  of  their  "barrabkie."  This  hut  or  house  of  the 
Aleutian  hunter  is  half  under  ground,  or,  in  other  words,  it  is  an 


THE   QUEST   OF   THE   OTTER. 


135 


excavation  on  the  village  site  of  a  piece  of  earth  ten  or  fifteen  feet 
square,  three  or  four  feet  deep,  which  is  laid  back  up  and  over  upon 
a  wooden  frame  or  whalebone  joisting,  which  is  securely  built  up 
within  and  above  this  excavation,  so  that  a  rafter-ceiling  is  made 
about  six  feet  in  the  clear  from  the  earthen  floor.  A  wallspf  peaty 
sod  is  piled  up  around  outside,  two  and  three  feet  thick.  The  nat- 
ive architect  enters  this  dwelling  through  a  little  hall  patched  on 
to  that  leeward  side  from  the  winds  prevalent  in  the  vicinity.  The 
door  is  low,  even  for  Kahgoon,  and  he  stoops  as  he  opens  and 


A  Barrabkie. 
( The  characteristic  dwelling  ofAleutes  and  Kadiakers.) 

closes  it.  If  he  has  been  a  successful  hunter,  he  will  have  the  floor 
laid  with  boards  secured  from  the  trader ;  but  if  he  has  been  un- 
lucky, then  nothing  more  to  stand  upon  than  the  earth  is  afforded. 
This  barrabkie  is  divided  into  two  rooms,  not  wholly  shut  out  one 
from  the  other,  by  a  half-partition  of  mats,  timber,  or  some  hanging 
curtains,  which  conceal  the  bedroom  or  "spalniah"  from  the  direct 
gaze  of  the  living  and  cook-room.  They  are  very  fond  of  comforta- 
ble beds,  having  adopted  the  feather-ticks  of  the  Russians.  Soap 
is  an.  expensive  luxury,  so  Rangoon's  wife  is  economical  of  its  use 
for  washing  in  her  laundry  ;  and,  though  she  may  desire  to  spread 
over  her  sleeping  couch  the  counterpane  and  fluted  shams  of  our 
own  choice,  she  has  nothing  better  than  a  colored  quilt  which  the 


136  OUK  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

traders  bring  up  here  especially  to  meet  this  demand.  A  small 
deal-table,  two  or  three  empty  cracker-boxes  from  the  store,  and  a 
rude  bench  or  two  constitute  all  the  furniture,  while  a  little  cast-iron 
stove,  recently  introduced,  stands  in  one  corner,  and  the  heating  and 
cooking  is  created  and  performed  thereon.  The  table-ware  of  a 
hunter's  wife  and  the  household  utensils  do  not  require  much  room 
or  a  large  cupboard  for  their  reception.  A  few  large  white  crockery 
cups,  plates,  and  saucers,  with  gaudy  red  and  blue  designs,  and 
several  pewter  spoons,  will  be  found  in  sufficient  quantity  to  enter- 
tain with  during  seasons  of  festivity.  She  manifests  a  marked  dis- 
like to  tin  dishes,  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  necessary  to 
take  care  of  this  ware,  or  it  rusts  out.  Then,  above  all  the  strange 
odors  which  arise  here  in  this  close,  hot  little  room,  we  easily  de- 
tect the  smell  of  kerosene,  and,  sure  enough,  it  is  the  oil  which  is 
burned  in  the  lamp. 

Such  a  barrabkie  built  and  furnished  in  this  style  and  occupied 
by  Kahgoon,  his  wife,  two  or  three  children,  and  a  relative  or  so,  is 
a  warm  and  a  thoroughly  comfortable  shelter  to  him  and  his,  as  long 
as  he  keeps  it  in  good  repair.  It  is  true  that  the  air  seems  to  us, 
as  we  enter,  oppressively  close,  and,  in  case  of  sickness,  is  posit- 
ively foul ;  yet  on  the  whole  the  Alaskan  is  very  comfortable.  He 
never  stores  up  much  food  against  the  morrow — the  sea  and  its 
piscine  booty  is  too  near  at  hand.  Whatever  he  may  keep  over  he 
does  not  have  in  a  cellar,  but  hangs  it  up  outside  of  his  door  on  an 
elevated  trestle  which  he  calls  a  "  laabas,"  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
village  dogs,  while  there  is  no  thought  of  theft  from  the  hands  of  his 
neighbors.  He  lives  chiefly  upon  fresh  fish — cod,  halibut,  salmon 
and  other  varieties,  which  he  secures  the  year  round  as  they  rotate 
in  the  sea  and  streams.  He  varies  that  diet  according  to  the  suc- 
cess of  his  hunting,  by  buying  at  the  store  tea,  sugar,  hard-bread, 
crackers,  flour  and  divers  canned  fruits  or  vegetables.  Nature 
sends  him  in  season  the  flesh  and  eggs  of  sea-fowl,  geese,  ducks, 
and  a  few  land  birds  like  willow-grouse. 

In  this  fashion  the  sea-otter  hunter  appears  to  us  as  we  view  him 
now  ;  his  children  come,  grow  up,  and  branch  out,  to  repeat  his  life 
and  doing,  as  they  show  themselves  capable  of  living  by  their  own 
exertions  as  hunters  and  fishermen.  He  is  a  peaceful,  affectionate, 
and  thoroughly  undemonstrative  parent,  a  kind  husband,  and  he 
imposes  no  burden  upon  his  wife  that  he  does  not  fully  share,  un- 
less he  becomes  a  drunkard,  when,  in  that  event,  a  sad  change  is 


THE   QUEST   OF   THE   OTTER.  137 

made  in  the  man.  He  gets  drunk,  and  his  wife  too,  by  taking 
sugar,  flour,  and  dried-apples,  rice  or  hops,  if  he  can  get  them,  in 
certain  proportions,  puts  them  into  a  barrel  or  cask,  with  water, 
bungs  it  up  and  waits  for  fermentation  to  do  its  work.  Before  it  has 
worked  entirely  clear  he  draws  off  a  thick,  sour  liquid  wjiich  in- 
toxicates him  most  effectually — he  beats  his  spouse  and  runs  her 
and  children  from  the  house,  smashes  things,  and  for  weeks  after- 
ward the  barrabkie  is  desolate  and  open  as  the  result  of  such  orgies. 
If  he  continues,  his  health  is  shattered,  he  rapidly  fails  as  a  hunter, 
and  he  suffers  the  pangs  of  poverty  with  his  family.  It  is  said 
upon  good  authority  that  the  brewing  of  this  liquor  was  taught  to 
these  people  by  the  earliest  Russian  arrivals  in  their  country,  who 
made  it  as  an  anti-scorbutic  ;  but  it  certainly  has  not  proved  to  be 
a  blessing  in  disguise,  for  it  has  brought  upon  them  nearly  all  the 
misery  that  they  are  capable  of  understanding. 

In  concluding  this  brief  introduction  to  the  life  of  the  otter- 
hunter,  we  may  fitly  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  Kahgoon  and  his 
family  are  devout  members  of  the  Greek  Catholic  Church,  as  are 
all  of  his  people,  without  a  single  exception,  between  Attoo  and 
Kadiak  Islands — nearly  five  thousand  souls  to-day,  living  in  scat- 
tered hamlets  all  along  between. 

The  subtle  acumen  displayed  by  the  sea-otter  in  the  selection  of 
its  habitat  can  only  be  fully  appreciated  by  him  who  has  visited  the 
chosen  land,  reefs,  and  water  of  its  resort.  It  is  a  region  so  gloomy, 
so  pitilessly  beaten  by  wind  and  waves,  by  sleet,  rain  and  persistent 
fog,  that  the  good  Bishop  Veniaminov,  when  he  first  came  among 
the  natives  of  the  Aleutian  Islands,  ordered  the  curriculum  of  hell 
to  be  omitted  from  the  church  breviary,  saying,  as  he  did  so,  that 
these  people  had  enough  of  it  here  on  this  earth !  The  fury  of 
hurricane  gales,  the  vagaries  of  swift  and  intricate  currents  in  and 
out  of  the  passages,  the  eccentricities  of  the  barometer,  the  black- 
ness of  the  fog  enveloping  all  in  its  dark,  damp  shroud,  so  alarm 
and  discomfit  the  white  man  that  he  willingly  gives  up  the  entire 
chase  of  the  sea-otter  to  that  brown-skinned  Aleut,  who  alone 
seems  to  be  so  constituted  as  to  dare  and  wrestle  with  these  ob- 
stacles through  descent  from  his  hardy  ancestors,  who,  in  turn, 
have  been  centuries  before  him  engaged  just  as  he  is  to-day. 

So  we  find  the  sea-otter-hunting  of  the  present,  as  it  was  in  the 
past,  entirely  confined  to  the  natives,  with  white  traders  here  and 
there  vieing  in  active  competition  one  with  the  other  in  bidding  for 


138  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

the  quarry  of  those  dusky  captors.  The  traders  erect  small  frame 
dwellings  as  stores  in  the  midst  of  the  otter-hunting  settlements, 
places  like  Oonalashka,  Belcovsky,  Oonga,  and  Kadiak  villages, 
which  are  the  chief  resorts  of  population  and  this  trade  in  Alaska. 
They  own  and  employ  small  schooners,  between  thirty  and  one 
hundred  tons  burthen,  in  conveying  the  hunting  parties  to  and 
from  these  hamlets  above  mentioned  as  they  go  to  and  return  from 
the  sea-otter  hunting-grounds  of  Saanak  and  the  Chernaboor  rocks, 
where  five-sixths  of  all  the  sea-otters  annually  taken  in  Alaska  are 
secured.  Why  these  animals  should  evince  so  much  partiality  for 
this  region  between  the  Straits  of  Oonimak  and  the  west  end  of 
Kadiak  Island  is  somewhat  mysterious,  but,  nevertheless,  it  is  the 
great  sea-otter  hunting-ground  of  the  country.  Saanak  Island, 
itself,  is  small,  with  a  coast-circuit  of  less  than  eighteen  miles. 
Spots  of  sand-beach  are  found  here  and  there,  but  the  major  por- 
tion of  the  shore  is  composed  of  enormous  water-worn  boulders, 
piled  up  high  by  the  booming  surf.  The  interior  is  low  and  roll- 
ing, with  a  central  ridge  rising  into  three  hills,  the  middle  one  some 
eight  hundred  feet  high.  There  is  no  timber  here,  but  an  abun- 
dant exhibit  of  grasses,  mosses,  and  sphagnum,  with  a  score  of  little 
fresh-water  ponds  in  which  multitudes  of  ducks  and  geese  are 
found  every  spring  and  fall.  The  natives  do  not  live  upon  the 
island,  because  the  making  of  fires  and  scattering  of  food-refuse, 
and  other  numerous  objectionable  matters  connected  with  their 
settlement,  alarm  the  otters  and  drive  them  off  to  parts  unknown. 
Thus  the  island  is  only  camped  upon  by  the  hunting-squads,  and 
fires  are  never  made  unless  the  wind  is  from  the  southward,  since 
no  sea-otters  are  ever  found  to  the  northward  of  the  ground.  The 
sufferings — miseries  of  cold,  and  even  hunger,  to  which  the  Aleutes 
subject  themselves  here  every  winter,  going  for  weeks  and  weeks 
at  a  time  without  fires,  even  for  cooking,  with  the  thermometer 
below  zero  in  a  wild,  northerly  and  westerly  gale  of  wind,  is  better 
imagined  than  portrayed. 

To  the  southward  and  westward  of  Saanak,  stretching  directly 
from  it  out  to  sea,  eight  or  ten  miles,  is  a  succession  of  small,  sub- 
merged islets,  rocky,  and  bare  most  of  them,  at  low  water,  with 
numerous  reefs  and  stony  shoals,  beds  of  kelp,  etc.  This  scant  area 
is  the  chief  resort  of  the  kahlan,  together  with  the  Chernaboor 
Islets,  some  thirty  miles  to  the  eastward,  which  are  identical  in 
character.  The  otter  rarely  lands  upon  the  main  island,  but  he 


THE   QUEST   OF   THE   OTTER.  139 

is,  when  found  ashore,  surprised  just  out  of  the  surf-wash  on  the 
reef.  The  quick  hearing  and  acute  smell  possessed  by  this  wary 
brute  are  not  equalled  by  any  other  creatures  in  the  sea  or  on  land. 
They  will  take  alarm,  and  leave  instantly  from  rest  in  a  large  sec- 
tion, over  the  effect  of  a  small  fire  as  far  away  as  four  or  five  miles 
distant  to  the  windward  of  them.  The  footstep  of  man  must  be 
washed  from  a  beach  by  many  tides  before  its  trace  ceases  to  scare 
the  animal  and  drive  it  from  landing  there,  should  it  approach  for 
that  purpose. 

The  fashion  of  capturing  the  sea-otter  is  ordered  entirely  by  the 
weather.  If  it  be  quiet  and  moderately  calm,  to  calm,  such  an  in- 
terval is  employed  in  "  spearing  surrounds."  Then,  when  heavy 
weather  ensues,  to  gales,  "  surf-shooting  "  is  the  method  ;  and  if  a 
furious  gale  has  been  blowing  hard  for  several  days  without  cessa- 
tion, as  it  lightens  up,  the  hardiest  hunters  "club"  the  kahlan. 
Let  us  first  follow  a  spearing  party  ;  let  us  start  with  the  hunters, 
and  go  with  them  to  the  death. 

Our  point  of  departure  is  Oonalashka  village  ;  the  time  is  an 
early  June  morning.  The  creaking  of  the  tackle  on  the  little 
schooner  out  in  the  bay  as  her  sails  are  being  set  and  her  anchor 
hoisted,  cause  a  swarm  of  Aleutes  in  their  bidarkies  to  start  out 
from  the  beach  for  her  deck.  They  clamber  on  board  and  draw 
their  cockle-shell  craft  up  after  them,  and  these  are  soon  stowed 
and  lashed  tightly  to  the  vessel's  deck-rail  and  stanchions.  The 
trader  has  arranged  this  trip  and  start  this  morning  for  Saanak,  by 
beginning  to  talk  it  over  two  weeks  ago  with  these  thirty  or  forty 
hunters  of  the  village.  He  is  to  carry  them  down  to  the  favored 
otter-resort,  leave  them  there,  and  return  to  bring  them  back  in 
just  three  months  from  the  day  of  their  departure  this  morning. 
For  this  great  accommodation  the  Aleutes  interested  agreed  to  give 
the  trader-skipper  a  refusal  of  their  entire  catch  of  otter-skins — in- 
deed many  of  them  have  mortgaged  their  labor  heavily  in  advance 
by  pre-purchasing  at  his  store,  inasmuch  as  the  credit  system  is 
worked  among  them  for  all  it  is  worth.  They  are  adepts  in  driv- 
ing a  bargain,  shrewd  and  patient.  The  traders  know  this  now, 
to  the  grievous  cost  of  many  of  them. 

If  everything  is  auspicious,  wind  and  tide  the  next  morning,  after 
sailing,  bring  the  vessel  well  upon  the  ground.  The  headlands  are 
made  out  and  noted  ;  the  natives  slip  into  their  bidarkies  as  they 
are  successively  dropped  over  the  schooner's  side  while  she  jogs 


140  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

along  under  easy  way,  until  the  whole  fleet  of  twenty  or  thirty  craft 
is  launched.  The  trader  stands  by  the  rail  and  shakes  the  hand  of 
each  grimy  hunter  as  he  steps  down  into  his  kyack,  calling  him,  in 
pigeon-Kussian,  his  "loobaiznie  droog,"  or  dear  friend,  and  bids 
him  a  hearty  good-by.  Then,  as  the  last  bidarka  drops,  the  ship 
comes  about  and  speeds  back  to  the  port  which  yesterday  morn- 
ing she  cleared  from,  or  she  may  keep  on,  before  she  does  so,  to 
some  harbor  at  Saanak,  where  she  will  leave  at  a  preconcerted 
rendezvous  a  supply  of  flour,  sugar,  tea,  and  tobacco  for  her  party. 

If  the  weather  be  not  too  foggy,  and  the  sea  not  very  high,  the 
bidarkies  are  deployed  into  a  single  long  line,  keeping  well  abreast, 
at  intervals  of  a  few  hundred  feet  between.  In  this  manner  they 
paddle  slowly  and  silently  over  the  water,  each  man  peering  sharply 
and  eagerly  into  the  vista  of  tumbling  water  just  ahead,  ready  to 
catch  the  faintest  evidence  of  the  presence  of  an  otter,  should  that 
beast  ever  so  slyly  present  even  the  tip  of  its  blunt  head  above 
for  breath  and  observation.  Suddenly  an  otter  is  discovered,  ap- 
parently asleep,  and  instantly  the  discoverer  makes  a  quiet  signal, 
which  is  flashed  along  the  line.  Not  a  word  is  spoken,  not  a 
paddle  splashes,  but  the  vigilant,  sensitive  creature  has  taken  the 
alarm,  and  has  turned  on  to  its  chest,  and  with  powerful  strokes  of 
its  strong,  webbed  hind  feet,  has  smote  the  water  like  the  blades  of 
a  propeller's  screw,  and  down  to  depths  below  and  away  it  speeds, 
while  the  hunter  brings  his  swift  bidarka  to  an  abrupt  standstill 
directly  upon  the  bubbling  wake  of  the  otter's  disappearance.  He 
hoists  his  paddle  high  in  the  air,  and  holds  it  there,  while  the 
others  whirl  themselves  over  the  water  into  a  large  circle  around 
him,  varying  in  size  from  one-quarter  to  half  a  mile  in  diameter, 
according  to  the  number  of  boats  engaged  in  the  chase. 

The  kahlan  has  gone  down — he  must  come  up  again  soon  some- 
where within  reach  of  the  vision  of  that  Aleutian  circle  on  the  waters 
over  its  head  ;  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  of  submergence,  at  the 
most,  compel  the  animal  to  rise,  and  instantly  as  its  nose  appears 
above  the  surface,  the  native  nearest  it  detects  the  movement,  raises 
a  wild  shout,  and  darts  in  turn  toward  it;  the  yell  has  sent  the 
otter  down  again  far  too  quickly  for  a  fair  respiration,  and  that  is 
what  the  hunter  meant  to  do,  as  he  takes  up  his  position  over  the 
spot  of  the  animal's  last  diving,  elevates  his  paddle,  and  the  circle 
is  made  anew,  with  this  fresh  centre  of  formation.  In  this  method 
the  otter  is  continually  made  to  dive  and  dive  again  without  scarcely 


/ 


THE   QUEST   OF   THE  OTTER.  141 

an  instant  to  fully  breathe,  for  a  period,  perhaps,  of  two  or  even 
three  hours,  until,  from  interrupted  respiration,  it  finally  becomes 
so  filled  with  air  or  gases  as  to  be  unable  to  sink,  and  then  falls  at 
once  an  easy  victim.  During  this  contest  the  Aleutes  have  been 
throwing  their  spears  whenever  they  were  anywhere  within  range 
of  the  kahlan,  and  the  hunter  who  has  stricken  the  quarry  is  the 
proud  and  wealthy  possessor,  beyond  all  question  or  dispute. 

In  this  manner  the  fleet  moves  on,  sometimes  very  fortunate  in 
finding  the  coveted  prey  ;  again,  whole  weeks  pass  away  without  a 
single  surround.  The  landings  at  night  are  made  without  any 
choice  or  selection,  but  just  as  the  close  of  the  day  urges  them  to 
find  the  nearest  shore.  The  bidarkies  are  hauled  out  above  surf- 
wash,  and  carefully  inspected  ;  if  it  is  raining  or  very  cold,  small 
A-tents  are  pitched,  using  the  paddles  and  spears  for  poles  and 
pegs,  into  which  the  natives  crowd  for  sleep  and  warmth,  since  they 
carry  no  blankets  or  bed-clothes  whatever,  and  unless  the  wind  is 
right  they  dare  not  make  a  fire,  even  to  prepare  the  cherished  cup 
of  tea,  which  they  enjoy  more  than  anything  else  in  the  world,  not 
excepting  tobacco.  After  ninety  or  a  hundred  days  of  such  em- 
ployment, during  which  time  they  have  been  subjected  to  frequent 
peril  of  life  in  storm,  and  fog-lost,  they  repair  to  the  rendezvous 
agreed  upon  between  the  trader  and  themselves,  ready  and  happy 
to  return  for  a  resting-spell,  to  their  wives,  children,  and  sweethearts 
in  the  village  whence  we  saw  them  depart.  They  may  have  been 
so  lucky  as  to  have  secured  forty  or  fifty  otters,  each  skin  worth 
to  them  at  least  fifty  to  sixty  dollars,  and  if  so,  they  will  have  a  pro- 
longed season  of  festivity  at  Oonalashka,  when  they  get  back.  Per- 
haps the  weather  has  been  so  inclement  that  this  party  will  not 
have  taken  a  half-dozen  pelts  ;  then  gloomy,  indeed,  will  be  the 
reception  at  home. 

While  the  "spearing  surround"  of  the  Aleutian  hunter  is  ortho- 
doxy, the  practice,  now  universal,  of  surf-shooting  the  otter,  is 
heterodoxy,  and  is  so  styled  among  these  people,  but  it  has  only 
been  in  vogue  for  a  short  time,  and  it  is  primarily  due  to  our 
traders,  who,  in  their  active  struggle  to  incite  the  natives  to  a 
greater  showing  of  skins,  have  loaned  and  have  given,  to  the  young 
hunters  in  especial,  the  best  patterns  of  rifles.  With  these  firearms 
the  shores  of  many  of  the  Aleutian  channels,  Saanak,  and  the 
Chernaboors,  are  patrolled  during  heavy  weather,  and  whenever  a 
sea-otter's  head  is  seen  in  the  surf,  no  matter  if  a  thousand  yards 


142  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

out,  the  expert,  patient  marksman  shoots  seldom  in  vain,  and  if  he 
does  miss  the  mark,  he  has  a  speedy  chance  to  try  again,  for  the 
great  distance,  and  thunderous  roar  of  the  breakers  prevent  the 
kahlan  from  hearing  or  taking  alarm  in  any  way  until  it  is  hit  by 
the  rifle-bullet :  nine  times  out  of  ten,  when  the  otter  is  thus 
struck,  it  is  in  the  head,  which  is  all  that  the  creature  usually 
exposes.  Of  course  such  a  shot  is  instantly  fatal,  so  that  the  hunter 
has  reason  to  sit  himself  down  with  a  long  landing-gaff  and  wait 
serenely  for  the  surf  to  gradually  heave  the  prized  carcass  within 
his  ready  reach. 

Last,  but  most  exciting  and  recklessly  venturesome  of  all  human 
endeavor  in  the  chase  of  a  wild  animal  is  the  plan  of  "clubbing." 
You  must  pause  with  me  for  a  brief  interval  on  Saanak  to  under- 
stand, even  imperfectly,  the  full  hazard  of  this  enterprise.  We  can- 
not walk,  for  the  wind  blows  too  hard — note  the  heavy  seas  foam- 
ing, chasing  and  swiftly  rolling  by,  one  after  the  other — hear  the 
keen  whistle  of  the  gale  as  it  literally  tears  the  crests  of  the  break- 
ers into  tatters,  and  skurries  on  in  sheets  of  fleecy  vapor,  whirring 
and  whizzing  away  into  the  darkness  of  that  frightful  storm  which 
has  been  raging  in  this  tremendous  fashion,  coming  from  the  west- 
ward, during  the  last  three  or  four  days  without  a  moment's  cessa- 
tion. Look  at  those  two  Aleutes  under  the  shelter  of  that  high 
bluff  by  the  beach.  Do  you  see  them  launch  a  bidarka,  seat  them- 
selves within  and  lash  their  kamlaykas  firmly  over  the  rims  to  the 
man-holes  ?  And  now  observe  them  boldly  strike  out  beyond  the 
protection  of  that  cliff  and  plunge  into  the  very  vortex  of  the  fear- 
ful sea,  and  scudding,  like  an  arrow  from  the  bow,  before  the  wind, 
they  disappear  almost  like  a  flash  and  a  dream  in  our  eyes  ! 

Yes,  it  looks  to  you  like  suicide  ;  but  there  is  this  method  to 
their  madness.  These  men  have,  by  some  intuition,  arrived  at  an 
understanding  that  the  storm  will  not  last  but  a  few  hours  longer 
at  the  most,  and  they  know  that  some  ten  or  twenty  or  even  thirty 
miles  away,  directly  to  the  leeward  from  where  they  pushed  off,  lies 
a  series  of  islets,  and  rocks  awash,  out  upon  which  the  long-con- 
tinued fury  of  this  gale  has  driven  a  number  of  sea-otters  that 
have  been  so  sorely  annoyed  by  the  battle  of  the  elements  as  to 
crawl  there  above  the  wash  of  the  surf,  and,  burying  their  glo- 
bose heads  in  heaps  of  sea-weed  to  avoid  the  pelting  of  the 
wind,  are  sleeping  and  resting  in  great  physical  peace  until  the 
weather  shall  change  :  then  they  will  at  once  revive  and  plunge 


ALEUTES   CLUBBING   SEA   OTTERS 
During  a  furious  gale  on  the  Chernaboor  Rocks 


THE   QUEST   OF  THE   OTTER.  143 

back  into  the  ocean  without  the  least  delay.  So  our  two  hunters, 
perhaps  the  only  two  souls  among  the  fifty  or  sixty  now  camped 
on  Saanak,  who  are  brave  enough,  have  resolved  to  scud  down  on 
the  tail  of  this  howling  gale,  run  in  between  the  breakers  to  the 
leeward  of  this  rocky  islet  ahead  of  them,  and  sneak  from  that 
direction  over  the  land  and  across  to  the  windward  coast,  so  as  to 
silently  and  surely  creep  up  and  on  to  the  kelp-bedded  victims,  when, 
in  the  fury  of  the  storm,  the  fast  falling  footsteps  of  the  hunter  are 
not  heard  by  the  active  yet  somnolent  animal  ere  a  deadly  whack  of 
his  short  club  falls  upon  its  unconscious  head.  The  noise  of  such  a 
tempest  is  far  greater  than  that  made  by  the  stealthy  movements  of 
these  venturesome  natives,  who,  plying  their  heavy,  wooden  blud- 
geons, despatch  the  animals  one  after  another  without  alarming  the 
whole  number.  In  this  way,  two  Aleutian  brothers  are  known  to 
have  slain  seventy-eight  otters  in  less  than  one  hour  ! 

If  these  hardy  men,  when  they  pushed  off  from  Saanak  in  that 
gale,  had  deviated  a  paddle's  length  from  their  true  course  for  the 
islet  which  they  finally  struck,  after  scudding  twenty  or  thirty  miles 
before  the  fury  of  wind  and  water,  they  would  have  been  swept  on 
and  out  into  a  vast  marine  waste  and  to  certain  death  from  exhaus- 
tion. They  knew  it  perfectly  when  they  ventured,  yet  at  no  time 
could  they  have  seen  ahead  clearly,  or  behind  them,  farther  than  a 
thousand  yards  !  Still,  if  they  waited  for  the  storm  to  abate,  then 
the  otters  would  all  be  back  in  the  water  ere  they  could  even  reach 
the  scene.  By  doing  what  we  have  just  seen  them  do  they  fairly 
challenge  our  admiration  for  their  exhibit  of  nerve  and  adroit  cal- 
culation, under  the  most  trying  of  all  natural  obstruction,  for  the 
successful  issue  of  their  venture. 

In  conclusion,  the  writer  calls  attention  to  a  strange  habit  of 
the  Aleutian  otter-hunters  of  Attoo,  who  live  on  the  extreme  west- 
ernmost island  of  the  grand  Alaskan  archipelago.  Here  the  kahlan 
is  captured  in  small  nets,*  which  are  spread  out  over  the  floating 
kelp-beds  or  "otter-rafts,"  the  natives  withdrawing  and  watching 
from  the  bluffs.  The  otters  come  out  to  sleep  or  rest  or  sport  on 
these  places,  get  entangled  in  the  meshes,  and  seem  to  make  little 
or  no  effort  to  escape,  being  paralyzed,  as  it  were,  by  fear.  Thus 
they  fall  an  easy  prey  into  the  hands  of  the  captors,  who  say  that 


*  Sixteen  to  18  feet  long,  6  to  10  feet  wide,  with  coarse  meshes ;  made 
nowadays  of  twine,  but  formerly  of  seal  and  sea-lion  sinews. 


144  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

they  have  caught  as  many  as  six  at  one  time  in  one  of  these  nets, 
and  that  they  frequently  get  three.  The  natives  also  watch  for  surf- 
holes  or  caves  awash  below  the  bluffs :  and,  when  one  is  found  to 
which  a  sea-otter  is  in  the  habit  of  going,  they  set  this  net  by 
spreading  it  over  the  entrance,  and  usually  capture  the  creature, 
sooner  or  later. 

No  injury  whatever  is  done  to  these  frail  nets  by  the  sea- 
otters,  strong  animals  as  they  are ;  only  stray  sea-lions  and  hair- 
seals  destroy  them.  There  is  no  driving  an  otter  out  upon  land  if 
it  is  surprised  on  the  beach  by  man  between  itself  and  the  water  ; 
it  will  make  for  the  sea  with  the  utmost  fearlessness,  with  gleaming 
eyes,  bared  teeth  and  bristling  hair,  not  paying  the  slightest  regard 
to  the  hunter.  The  Attoo  and  Atkah  Aleutes  have  never  been 
known  to  hunt  sea-otters  without  nets,  while  the  people  of  Oona- 
lashka,  and  those  eastward  of  them,  have  never  been  known  to  use 
such  gear.  Salt-water  and  kelp  appear  to  act  as  disinfectants  for 
the  meshes,  so  that  the  smell  of  them  does  not  repel  or  alarm  the 
shy,  suspicious  animal. 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

THE  GREAT  ALEUTIAN  CHAIN. 

The  Aleutian  Islands. — A  Great  Volcanic  Chain.— Symmetrical  Beauty  of 
Shishaldin  Cone. — The  Banked  Fires  in  Oonimak. — Once  most  Densely 
Populated  of  all  the  Aleutians  ;  now  Without  a  Single  Inhabitant. — 
Sharp  Contrast  in  the  Scenery  of  the  Aleutian  and  Sitkan  Archipelagoes. 
— Fog,  Fog,  Fog,  Everywhere  Veiling  and  Unveiling  the  Chain  Inces- 
santly.— Schools  of  Hump-back  Whales. — The  Aleutian  Whalers. — Odd 
and  Reckless  Chase. — The  Whale-backed  Volcano  of  Akootan. — Striking 
Outlines  of  Kahlecta  Point  and  the  "  Bishop." — Lovely  Bay  of  Oonalashka. 
—No  Wolf  e'er  Howled  from  its  Shore.—  Illoolook  Village.—  The  u  Curved 
Beach." — The  Landscape  a  Fascinating  Picture  to  the  Ship- weary  Trav- 
eller.—Flurries  of  Snow  in  August. — Winds  that  Riot  over  this  Aleutian 
Chain.— The  Massacre  of  Drooshinniu  and  One  Hundred  and  Fifty  of  his 
Siberian  Hunters  here  in  1762-63.— This  the  Only  Desperate  and  Fatal 
Blow  ever  Struck  by  the  Docile  Aleutes. — The  Rugged  Crown  and  Noisy 
Crater  of  Makooshin.— The  Village  at  its  Feet— The  Aleutian  People  the 
Best  Natives  of  Alaska. — All  Christians.— Quiet  and  Respectful. — Fash- 
ions and  Manners  among  Them. — The  "  Barrabkie. '' — Quaint  Exterior 
and  Interior. — These  Natives  Love  Music  and  Dancing. — Women  on  the 
Wood  and  Water  Trails. — Simple  Cuisine. — Their  Remarkable  Willing- 
ness to  be  Christians. — A  Greek  Church  or  Chapel  in  every  Settlement. 
— General  Intelligence. — Keeping  Accounts  with  the  Trader's  Store. — 
They  are  thus  Proved  to  be  Honest  at  Heart. — The  Festivals,  or  "  Praz- 
niks."— The  Phenomena  of  Borka  Village. — It  is  Clean. — Little  Ceme- 
teries.—Faded  Pictures  of  the  Saints. — Attoo,  the  Extreme  Western  Set- 
tlement of  the  North  American  Continent. — Three  Thousand  Miles  West 
of  San  Francisco! — The  Mummies  of  the  "Cheetiery  Sopochnie." — The 
Birth  of  a  New  Island. — The  Rising  of  Boga  Slov. 

AFTER  "lying-to  "  in  a  fierce  southwester  for  three  whole  days  and 
nights,  in  which  time  the  fury  of  the  gale  never  abated  for  an  hour, 
our  captain  had  so  husbanded  his  resources  that,  when  the  weather 
moderated,  he  was  able  to  clap  on  sail  and  get  under  swift  head- 
way ;  then  we  quickly  left  the  watery  area  of  our  detention  and 
soon  opened  up  a  splendid  vista  of  Oonimak  Island,  in  the  early 
dawning  of  a  clear  June  day.  This  is  the  largest  one  of  that  long- 
10 


146  OUR   AKCTIC   PROVINCE. 

extended  archipelago  which  stretches  as  an  outreaching  arm  for 
Asia  from  America ;  it  presents  to  our  delighted  gaze  a  sweep  of 
richly-colored,  rolling  uplands,  which  either  slope  down  gently  to 
the  coast  at  intervals,  or  else  terminate  in  chocolate-brown  and 
reddish  cliffs  abruptly  stopped  to  face  the  sea  breaking  at  their 
feet.  Very  high  ridges,  with  summits  entirely  bare  of  vegetation, 
traverse  the  centre  of  the  island  from  east  to  west,  while  the  tower- 
ing snowy  cone  of  Shishaldin  and  the  lower,  yet  lofty,  head  of  Po- 
gromnia — two  volcanoes — rear  themselves  over  all  in  turn. 

There  are  a  multitude  of  huge  and  cloud-compelling  mountains 
in  Alaska,  but  it  is  wholly  safe  to  say  that  Shishaldin  is  the  most 
beautiful  peak  of  vast  altitude  known  upon  the  North  American 
continent ;  it  rears  its  perfectly  symmetrical  apex  over  eight  thou- 
sand feet  in  sheer  height  above  those  breakers  which  thunder  and 
incessantly  roll  against  its  flanks,  as  these  precipitous  slopes  fall 
into  the  great  Pacific  Ocean  on  the  south,  and  Bering  Sea  to  the 
north.  A  steamy  jet  of  vapor  curls  up  lazily  from  its  extreme 
summit,  but  it  has  not  been  eruptive  or  noisy  at  any  time  within 
the  memory  of  the  Russians.  No  foothills,  that  crowd  up  against 
and  dwarf  the  presence  of  most  high  mountains,  embarrass  your 
view  of  Shishaldin ;  from  every  point  of  the  compass  it  presents 
the  same  perfect  cone-shape  ;  rising  directly  from  the  water  and 
lowlands  of  Oonimak,  it  holds  and  continues  long  to  charm  your 
senses  with  its  rare  magnificence  ;  the  distance  of  our  vessel,  ten 
or  twelve  miles  away,  serves  to  soften  down  its  lines  of  numerous 
seared  and  blackened  paths  of  prehistoric  lava  overflow,  so  that 
they  now  softly  blend  their  purplish  tones  into  those  of  the  rich- 
hued  mantle  of  golden-green  mosses  and  sphagnum  which  cover 
the  rolling  lower  lands. 

As  we  draw  into  Oonimak  Pass — it  is  the  gateway  for  all  sail- 
ing vessels  bound  to  Bering  Sea  from  American  ports,  we,  in  closing 
up  with  the  land,  almost  lose  sight  of  Shishaldin,  and  come  into 
the  shadow  of  the  rougher  and  less  attractive  volcano  of  Pogromnia. 
It  shows  ample  evidence  of  its  origin  by  the  streams  of  blackened 
frost-riven  basalt  and  breccia  which  are  ribbed  upon  its  rugged 
sides ;  great  masses  of  eruptive  rock  and  pumice  lie  here  and  there 
scattered  all  over  the  broad-stubbed  head  of  the  mountain  ;  tons 
and  tons  of  this  material  have  rolled  from  thence  in  lavish  profu- 
sion and  disorder,  clear  down  for  miles  to  the  very  waters  of  the 
sea  and  straits,  strewing  that  entire  route  with  huge  debris.  Seams 


H  .£ 


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I! 


THE   GREAT  ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  147 

of  snow  and  ice  lacquer,  in  white,  thread  the  bold  black  crown  of 
this,  the  "  booming  "  or  "  noisy  "  volcano  of  the  Eussians.  It  has 
not  been  in  action  since  1820,  when  it  then  threw  showers  of  ashes 
and  pumice  ;  but  those  fires  in  its  furnace  are  only  banked,  as  it 
has  been  smoking  in  inky  brown  and  black  clouds  at  irregular  and 
frequent  intervals  ever  since  ;  loud  mutterings,  deep  rumblings 
and  wide-felt  tremors  of  land  and  sea  are  aroused  by  it  constantly. 
This  Island  of  Oonimak  has  been  always  regarded  by  the  Russians 
as  the  roof  of  a  subterranean  smelting  furnace  with  many  chim- 
neys through  which  telluric  forces  ascended  from  the  molten  masses 
beneath.  It  has  been,  and  is  still,  the  theatre  of  the  greatest 
plutonic  activity  in  Alaska.  Eussian  eye-witnesses  have  described 
violent  earthquakes  here  where  whole  ridges  of  the  interior  and 
coast  have  been  rent  asunder,  cleft  open,  from  which  torrents  of 
lava  poured  and  columns  of  flame  and  clouds  of  ashes,  steam  and 
smoke,  have  risen  so  as  to  be  viewed  and  noticed  for  a  circuit  of 
hundreds  of  miles  around.  These  manifestations  were  always 
accompanied  by  violent  earthquakes,  and  tidal-waves  which  often 
submerged  adjacent  villages  on  the  sea-level,  and  also  whole  native 
settlements  were  swept  away  in  mountain  floods  caused  by  the 
sudden  melting  of  those  big  banks  of  ice  and  snow  on  such  vol- 
canic summits  and  their  foothills,  upon  which  the  hot  breccia  from 
a  vomiting  crater  fell.* 

This  great  island  in  olden  times  was  the  one  most  densely 
populated  by  the  Aleutes.  The  excesses  and  terrible  outrages  of 
Eussian  promishlyniks,  followed  by  the  wholesale  work  of  death 
wrought  by  small-pox,  have  utterly  eliminated  every  human  settle- 
ment from  the  length  and  breadth  of  Oonimak,  upon  which  no  one 
has  resided  since  1847.  Euins  on  the  north  shore  show  the  aban- 
doned sites  of  numerous  large  hamlets  ;  one  was  over  four  thousand 


*  Bishop  Veniaminov,  who  witnessed  one  of  these  eruptions  in  1825, 
describes  the  occurrence:  "On  the  10th  March,  1825,  after  a  prolonged  sub- 
terranean noise  resembling  a  heavy  cannonade,  that  was  plainly  heard  on  the 
islands  of  Oonalashka,  Akoon,  and  the  southern  end  of  the  Aliaska  Peninsula,  a 
low  ridge  at  the  northwestern  end  of  Oonimak  opened  in  five  places  with 
violent  emissions  of  flames  and  great  masses  of  black  ashes,  covering  the  coun- 
try for  miles  around ;  the  ice  and  snow  on  the  mountain  tops  melted  and 
descended  in  a  terrific  torrent  five  to  ten  miles  in  width,  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  island.  The  Shishaldin  crater,  which  up  to  that  time  had  also  emitted 
flames,  continued  to  smoke  only.'' 


148  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

two  hundred  feet  in  its  frontage  on  the  beach.  The  fear  and 
superstition  which  those  tragedies  of  early  Eussian  intercourse 
produced  in  the  simple  minds  of  the  natives,  who  belonged  by 
birth  to  this  great  island,  became  at  length  so  potent  as  to  cause 
the  entire  and  permanent  abandonment  of  their  desolated  villages, 
which  were  once  so  populous  and  well  satisfied. 

The  craters,  and  outflow  therefrom,  on  Oonimak  have  been,  from 
time  immemorial,  resorted  to  by  the  natives  as  their  storehouses  for 
sulphur,  and  that  shining  obsidian  with  which  they  tipped  their 
bone-spear  and  arrow-heads  ;  of  it,  also,  they  made  their  primitive 
knives,  and  traded  the  surplus  stock  to  those  Aleutes  living  else- 
where. They  used  the  sulphur  with  dried  moss  in  making  fires, 
which  they  started  with  the  fire-stick  and  by  rocky  concussions.* 

Before  entering  the  straits  of  Oonimak,  we  had  a  fine  view  of  the 
entire  sweep  of  the  Krenitzin  group,  that  presents  a  succession  of 
the  wildest  and  most  irregular  peaks  and  bluffs,  everywhere  seem- 
ing to  jut  up  and  fall  into  the  sea,  without  a  gentle  slope  for  a 
human  landing,  as  they  face  the  Pacific  billows  dashing  so  inces- 
santly upon  their  basaltic  bases ;  the  extreme  eastern  islet  of  the 
group  is  Oogamok,  and  it  forms  the  opposite  land  from  Cape  Heet- 
hook  on  Oonimak,  directly  across  the  straits.  A  swarm  of  sea- 
parrots  fly  out  from  its  rocky  bluffs  on  the  south  shore,  stirred  into 
unwonted  activity  and  curiosity  by  the  near  approach  of  our  vessel, 
while  a  dozing  herd  of  sea-lions  suspiciously  stretch  their  long  necks 
into  the  air,  smell  us,  then  simultaneously  and  precipitately  plump 
themselves  into  the  foaming  breakers  just  below  their  basking- place 
above  the  surf-wash. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  adequately  define  or  express  those  varying 
impressions  which  are  inspired  by  a  panorama  of  these  Aleutian 
Islands,  such  as  unfolds  itself  to  your  eye  when  rapidly  sailing  along 
under  their  lee  on  a  clear  day.  The  scene  is  one  of  rare  beauty. 
The  water  is  blue  and  dancing  until  it  strikes  in  heavy  waves  upon 
the  rocky  curbing  of  the  islands,  dashing  up  clouds  of  spray  in 
white,  fleecy  masses  against  the  dark-brown  and  reddish  cliff-walls 
rising  over  all.  The  slopes  and  the  summits  of  everything  on  land, 

*A  flat,  flinty  rock — upon  it  a  layer  of  dried  moss  or  eider-down  was 
spread,  then  a  sprinkling  of  powdered  sulphur  was  cast  over  the  moss  or 
feathers,  then  a  large  quartzite  stone  was  grasped  in  the  native's  hand,  who 
struck  it  down  with  all  his  force  upon  this  preparation.  The  concussion  pro- 
duced fire,  and,  when  feathers  were  used,  a  terrible  smell. 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  149 

save  the  very  highest  peaks,  are  clothed  in  an  indescribably  rich 
green  and  golden  carpet  of  circumpolar  sphagnum  ;  exquisitely- 
colored  lichens*  adorn  the  stony  sea-bluffs  and  precipices  inland. 
Every  minute  of  the  ship's  progress  in  a  free,  fair  wind  shifts  the 
fascinating  scene — a  new  peak,  another  bold  headland,  a  narrow 
pass,  unfolds  now  between  two  islets  that  just  before  apparently 
were  solid  and  as  united  as  one  island  could  be  ;  a  steamy  jet  of 
hot-spring  vapor  rises  from  a  deeper,  richer  mass  of  green  and  gold 
than  that  surrounding  it,  and  a  dark-brownish  column  of  smoke 
that  issues  from  a  lofty,  cloud-encircled  summit  in  the  distance  is 
the  burning  crater  of  Akootan. 

Everything  is  so  open  here,  is  so  plain  to  see,  that  when  you  try 
to  find  some  points  of  resemblance  to  that  picture  which  has  chal- 
lenged your  admiration  in  the  Sitkan  archipelago,  you  find  noth- 
ing— absolutely  nothing — in  common  effect.  It  is,  nevertheless, 

*  The  range  and  diverse  beauties  of  the  numerous  mosses  and  lichens  on 
these  islands  must  serve  as  an  agreeable  and  interesting  study  to  anyone  who 
lias  the  slightest  love  for  nature.  They  undoubtedly  formed  the  first  covering 
to  the  naked  rocks,  after  these  basaltic  foundations  had  been  reared  upon  and 
above  the  bed  of  the  sea— bare  and  naked  cliffs  and  boulders,  which  with 
calm  intrepidity  presented  their  callous  fronts  to  the  powerful  chisels  of  the 
Frost  King.  Rain,  wind,  and  thawing  moods  destroyed  their  iron-bound 
strongness  ;  particles  larger  and  finer,  washed  down  and  away,  made  a  surface 
of  soil  which  slowly  became  more  and  more  capable  of  sustaining  vegetable 
life.  "In  this  virgin  earth,"  says  an  old  author,  "the  wind  brings  a  small 
seed,  which  at  first  generates  a  diminutive  moss,  which,  spreading  by  degrees, 
with  its  tender  and  minute  texture,  resists,  however,  the  most  intense  cold, 
and  extends  over  the  whole  a  verdant  velvet  carpet.  In  fact,  these  mosses  are 
the  medicines  and  the  nurses  of  the  other  inhabitants  of  the  vegetable  king- 
dom [in  the  North].  The  bottom  parts  of  the  mosses,  which  perish  and 
moulder  away  yearly,  mingling  with  the  dissolved  but  as  yet  crude  parts  of 
the  earth,  communicate  to  it  organized  particles,  which  contribute  to  the 
growth  and  nourishment  of  other  plants.  They  likewise  yield  salts  and  un- 
guinous  phlogistic  particles  for  the  nourishment  of  future  vegetable  colonies, 
the  seeds  of  other  plants,  which  the  sea  and  winds,  or  else  the  birds  in  their 
plumage,  bring  from  distant  shores  and  scatter  among  the  mosses.''  Then  the 
botanist  needs  no  prompting  when  he  observes  the  maternal  care  of  these 
mosses,  which  screen  the  tender  new  arrivals  from  the  cold  and  imbue  them 
with  the  moisture  which  they  have  stored  up,  and  "  nourish  them  with  their 
own  oily  exhalations,  so  that  they  grow,  increase,  and  at  length  bear  seeds, 
and  afterward  dying,  add  to  the  unguinous  nutritive  particles  of  the  earth  ; 
and  at  the  same  time  diffuse  over  this  new  earth  and  mosses  more  seeds,  the 
earnest  of  a  numerous  posterity." 


150  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

just  as  attractive,  just  as  grand ;  but  how  different !  All  is  laid 
perfectly  bare  to  inspection  here— no  dense  forests  and  tangled 
thickets  to  conceal  the  surface  of  the  diversified  uplands  and  moun- 
tain slopes,  or  to  hide  the  innermost  recesses  of  the  deep  ravines 
and  narrow  valleys.  While  there  is  a  vast  variation  in  the  islands, 
yet  there  is,  to  the  mind  of  him  who  views  them  for  the  first  time, 
the  most  helpless  inability  on  his  part  to  distinguish  or  even  recog- 
nize them  apart  when  he  happens  to  revisit  them.  They  are  seldom 
ever  clearly  defined,  being  more  or  less  obscured  in  fog  and  heavy 
rifts  of  cloud.  The  top  of  a  headland  peeps  aloft,  sharply  out- 
lined, while  all  below  is  lost  in  the  mists  and  banks  of  fog  that  roll 
up  there  from  the  sea.  Then,  in  remarkable  contrast,  only  a  few 
miles  beyond,  the  rocks  at  sea-level  and  foothills  of  the  next  island 
will  be  entirely  plain  to  your  sight ;  while  everything  above  is  con- 
cealed, in  turn,  by  a  curtain  of  the  same  moist  and  vanishing 
misty  fog.  Fog,  fog,  fog  everywhere,  rising  and  descending  with 
the  force  of  wind-currents  that  bear  it — now  veiling,  now  revealing 
the  startling  and  impressive  beauties  of  this  vast  sea-girt  chain  of 
the  Aleutian  archipelago.  These  majestic  blue  swells  of  the  great 
Pacific  join  with  those  cold  green  waves  of  that  lesser,  shallower 
ocean  of  the  North  in  holding  with  firm  embrace  the  most  impres- 
sive range  of  fire-eaten  mountains  known  to  the  geographer.  This 
cordon  of  smoking,  grumbling,  quaking  hills  and  peaks,  when 
once  surveyed,  leaves  an  enduring  image,  grand  and  superb,  on  the 
retina  of  that  eye  which  has  been  so  fortunate  as  to  behold  it. 

As  the  little  schooner  bears  up  to  the  westward  for  our  port  of 
Oonalashka,  after  we  have  well  passed  the  Straits  of  Oonimak,  we 
sail  into  the  shorter,  choppy  waters  of  Bering  Sea — into  its  charac- 
teristic light  gray-green  hue  of  soundings.  The  precipitous  walls 
of  Akoon  Island,  rising  like  so  much  Titanic  sandstone  masonry 
everywhere  abruptly  from  the  surf,  carry  a  broad  green  plateau, 
that  rolls  and  extends  high  above  the  surrounding  tide-level. 
Here,  under  their  lee,  on  the  north  shore,  we  encounter  one  of 
those  large  schools  of  humpback  whales  *  which  are  so  common 
and  so  frequently  met  with  in  the  Aleutian  straits  and  passages. 
These  animals  rise  and  sink  alongside  of  the  vessel,  in  utter  disre- 
gard of  its  presence ;  and  even  volleys  and  bullets  of  our  breech- 
loading  rifles  rapidly  fired  into  their  broad,  glistening,  gray-black 

*  Megaptera  versabilis. 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  151 

backs  and  sides  do  not  seem  to  arouse  or  alarm  them  in  the  least. 
Down  they  lazily  go,  to  soon  rise  again  with  a  sonorous  whistle  as 
they  "  blow."  A  cloud  of  whale -birds  hover  over  and  settle  on  the 
watery  area  occupied  by  the  feeding  whales,  ever  and  anon  rising, 
to  alight  again  as  the  cetacean  fleet  leaves  its  feathered  convoy 
tossing  behind  on  the  wavelets  of  the  sea. 

Our  skipper,  who  has  been  a  whaler  in  his  youth,  tells  us,  with 
a  quaint  air  of  contempt  for  what  we  so  much  admire,  that  these 
fish-like  monsters  are  of  no  consequence  in  the  eyes  of  a  wise  whal- 
ing captain,  for  though  they  are  large  enough,  it  is  true,  yet  they 
are  the  wrong  breed  of  whales — they  are  lean,  fighting  humpbacks, 
which,  if  struck  with  a  harpoon,  will  run  like  an  express  engine  for 
fifty  miles  or  more,  carrying  a  boat  and  crew  of  our  species,  either 
down  in  its  rapid  rush,  or  else  diving  in  the  shoals,  over  which  it 
feeds,  it  rolls  the  death-dealing  iron  out  or  breaks  it  off  on  the 
bottom. 

A  stiff  head-wind  causes  the  course  of  the  vessel  to  frequently 
lie  close  in  to  the  shore  where  the  massive  bluffs  of  Akoon  and 
Akootan  rise  in  grim  defiance,  and  from  the  shelves  and  interstices 
of  which  flocks  of  sea-parrots  and  little  auks  fly  out  in  circling 
flights  of  curiosity  and  inspection  around  the  schooner.  As  we 
watch  the  lazy  motions  of  the  whales,  we  recall  the  fact  that  on  the 
summits  of  these  bluffs  and  headlands  now  before  us,  the  natives  of 
Oonimak,  as  well  as  those  to  the  country  born,  were  in  the  habit  of 
standing  through  long  vigils  of  daily  and  nightly  watch,  as  they 
went  whale-fishing  long  ago  after  their  own  primitive  fashion. 

Nothing  fit  to  eat  is,  or  was,  so  highly  prized  by  the  Aleutes  or 
Kaniags,  as  the  blubber  and  gristle  of  a  whale.  To  secure  this 
luxury  these  savages  were  in  the  habit  of  subjecting  themselves  to 
infinite  hardship  and  repeated  bitter  disappointment.  The  chase 
of  the  "  ahgashitnak  "  *  and  the  little  "akhoaks"f  was  the  impor- 
tant business  of  their  lives  in  times  of  peace.  The  native  hunter 
used,  as  his  sole  weapon  of  destruction,  a  spear-handle  of  wood 
about  six  feet  in  length ;  to  the  head  of  this  he  lashed  a  neatly- 
polished  socket  of  walrus  ivory,  in  which  he  inserted  a  tip  of  ser- 
rated slate  that  resembled  a  gigantic  arrow-point,  twelve  or  fourteen 
inches  long  and  four  or  five  broad  at  the  barbs,  and  upon  the  point 
of  which  he  carved  his  own  mark. 

*  Yearling  whale.  f  Calf  whales. 


152  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

In  the  months  of  June  and  July  the  whales  begin  to  make  their 
first  inshore  visits  to  the  Aleutian  bays,  where  they  follow  up 
schools  of  herring  and  shoals  of  Amphipoda,  or  sea-fleas,  upon 
which  they  love  to  feed.  These  bays  of  Akootan  and  Akoon  were 
and  are  always  resorted  to  more  freely  by  those  cetaceans  than  are 
any  others  in  Alaska,  and  here  the  hunt  is  continued  as  late  as 
August.  When  a  calm,  clear  day  occurs  the  natives  ascend  the 
bluffs  and  locate  a  school  of  whales ;  then  the  best  men  launch  their 
skin-canoes,  or  bidarkas,  and  start  for  the  fields.  "  Two-holed  " 
bidarkas  only  are  used.  The  hunter  himself  sits  forward  with 
nothing  but  his  whale-spear  in  his  grasp  ;  his  companion,  in  the 
after  hatch,  swiftly  urges  the  light  boat  over  the  water  in  obedi- 
ence to  his  order.  Carefully  looking  the  whales  over,  the  hunter 
finally  recognizes  that  yearling,  or  the  calf,  which  he  wishes  to 
strike  ;  for  it  is  not  his  desire  to  attack  an  old  bull  or  angry  cow- 
whale.  He  calculates  to  a  nice  range  where  the  "  akhoak  "  will  rise 
again  from  its  last  point  of  disappearance,  and  directs  the  course 
of  the  bidarka  accordingly.  If  he  is  fortunate  he  will  be  within  ten 
or  twenty  feet  of  the  rising  calf  or  yearling,  and  as  it  rounds  its 
glistening  back  slowly  and  lazily  out  from  its  cover  of  the  wavelets 
the  Aleut  throws  his  spear  with  all  his  physical  power,  so  as  to 
bury  the  head  of  it  just  under  the  stubby  dorsal  fin  of  that  marine 
monster  ;  the  wooden  shaft  is  at  once  detached,  but  the  contortions 
of  the  stricken  whale  only  assist  to  drive  and  urge  the  barbed  slate- 
point  deeper  and  deeper  into  its  vitals.  Meanwhile  the  canoe  is 
paddled  away  as  alertly  as  possible,  before  the  plunging  flukes  of 
the  tortured  animal  can  destroy  it  or  drown  its  human  occupants. 

As  soon  as  the  whale  is  thus  wounded  it  makes  for  the  open 
sea,  where  "  it  goes  to  sleep  "  for  three  days,  as  the  natives  believe  ; 
then  death  intervenes,  and  the  gases  of  decomposition  cause  its 
carcass  to  float,  and,  if  the  waves  and  currents  are  favorable,  it  will 
be  so  drifted  as  to  lodge  on  a  beach  at  some  locality  not  so  very 
remote  from  the  place  where  it  was  struck  by  the  hunter.  The 
business  of  watching  for  these  expected  carcasses  then  became  the 
great  object  of  everyone's  life  in  that  hunters'  village ;  dusky 
sentinels  and  pickets  were  ranged  over  long  intervals  of  coast-line, 
stationed  on  the  brows  of  the  most  prominent  headlands,  where 
they  commanded  an  extensive  range  of  watery  vision.  But  the 
caprices  of  wind  and  tides  are  such  in  these  highways  and  byways 
of  the  Aleutian  Islands,  that  on  an  average  not  more  than  one  whale 


: 


o  s 

Z  60 

-i  .S 

2  1 

*  g 


'-v\ 

,1 
W^  \%' 


THE   GREAT  ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  153 

in  twenty,  struck  in  this  manner  by  native  hunters,  was  ever 
secured  ;  nevertheless,  that  one  alone  (when  cast  ashore)  amply 
repaid  the  labor  and  the  exposure  incurred  chiefly  by  watching  day 
after  day,  in  storm  and  fog,  from  the  bluffs  of  Akoon  and  Akootan. 
The  lucky  hunter  who  successfully  claimed,  by  his  spear-head 
mark,  the  credit  of  slaying  such  a  stranded  calf  or  yearling,  was 
then  an  object  of  the  highest  respect  among  his  fellow-men,  and  it 
was  remembered  well  of  him  even  long  after  death.*  Also,  the 
greatest  expression  of  respect  for  the  size  and  ability  of  a  native 
village  and  its  people  was  the  statement  that  it  was  so  populous  as 
to  be  able  to  eat  all  the  meat  and  blubber  of  a  large  whale's  carcass 
in  a  single  day  ! 

As  we  "  put  about "  under  the  frowning  walls  at  Cape  North, 
of  Akootan,  our  captain  says  that  the  next  tack  will  carry  us  into 
Oonalashka  Harbor.  Meanwhile,  as  we  stand  out  into  the  waters  of 
Bering  Sea,  we  have  a  superb  vista  of  the  rugged,  seared,  and 
smoking  summit  of  Akootan  itself,  which  rears  its  hot  head  high 
above  the  rough,  rocky  island  that  bears  its  name.  The  beaches 
are  few  and  far  between,  and  there  is  but  little  land  upon  this 
island  to  invite  a  pedestrian,  since  masses  of  dark  basalt,  vesicular 
and  olivine,  are  scattered  in  wild  profusion  everywhere.  Over  the 
northeast  side  steamy  clouds  arise  from  the  path  of  a  hot  spring, 
which  gushes  out  of  the  mountain,  so  hot  that  meat  and  fish  are 
cooked  in  its  scalding  flood  by  the  natives.  On  the  very  crest,  as 
it  were,  of  this  whale-backed  volcano,  are  two  small,  deep  lakes 
that  once  were  the  vent-holes  of  subterranean  fires.  In  olden  times 
seven  settlements,  with  a  population  of  more  than  six  hundred 
Aleutes,  lived  on  the  coast  of  this  island,  which,  with  Akoon,  was 
then  the  whale-hunter's  paradise.  To-day  we  find  it  utterly  deso- 
late, inhabited  by  a  poverty-stricken  hamlet  of  sixty-five  natives, 
who  are  located  on  the  southwest  shore.  The  able-bodied  men  of 


*  Then  it  was  the  custom  to  cut  up  the  dead  body  of  a  celebrated  native 
whale-hunter  into  small  pieces,  each  of  which  was  kept  by  the  survivors  to 
rub  over  their  spear-heads,  being  carefully  dried  and  preserved  for  that  pur- 
pose. Again,  in  ancient  times,  the  pursuit  of  the  whale  was  the  prelude  to 
many  secret  and  superstitious  observances  by  the  hunters.  These  primitive 
whalers  preserved  the  bodies  of  distinguished  hunters  in  caves,  and  before 
going  out  on  a  whale-chase  would  carry  those  remains  into  the  water  of  streams 
so  as  to  drink  of  that  which  flowed  over  them.  The  tainted  draught  conveyed 
the  spirit  and  luck  of  the  departed  ! 


154  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

this  place  spend  the  greater  part  of  their  time,  however,  far  awaj 
from  home  on  the  sea-otter  grounds  of  Saanak,  being  carried,  like 
their  brethren  of  Akoon  and  Avatanak,  to  and  from  that  spot  by 
a  trader's  vessel. 

Closely  joined  to  them  is  the  village  of  Akoon,  in  which  fifty-five 
or  sixty  of  their  countrymen  live  on  the  northwest  shore,  who  hunt 
and  deport  themselves  as  do  those  of  Akootan.  The  Akoonites, 
however,  enjoy  the  satisfaction  of  being  nearer  than  their  neighbors 
to  that  small,  rugged  islet  of  Oogamak,  which  stands  in  the  path, 
as  it  were,  of  the  great  Pass  of  Oonimak  ;  here  on  the  low  rocks  a 
comparatively  large  number  of  sea-lions  repair,  and  the  little  hair- 
seal  also.  For  some  reason  or  other,  more  of  these  last-named 
seals  are  found  here  than  elsewhere  in  the  entire  large  extent  of  this 
gigantic  island  chain.  Akoon  used  to  boast  of  many  mighty  whalers 
among  its  prehistoric  population  of  five  or  six  hundred  natives, 
who,  in  fading  away,  have  left  the  ruins  only  of  eight  settlements 
to  attest  their  previous  proud  existence. 

While  we  have  noticed  the  poverty  of  the  Akootans,  yet,  as  we 
contemplate  the  wretched  little  village  on  Avatanak,  close  by  and 
facing  the  straits,  we  must  call  this  the  most  abject  human  settle- 
ment, perhaps,  that  we  shall  or  can  find  throughout  the  archipelago 
— only  nineteen  souls  living  here  in  the  most  abandoned  squalor  and 
apathy,  principally  upon  the  sea-castings  of  the  beach  and  mussels. 
Yet  this  island  in  olden  days  was  the  happy  home  for  a  busy  little 
fishing  community  which  then  had  three  settlements  on  the  banks 
of  a  beautiful  stream  that  empties  its  clear  waters  into  the  sea  on 
its  north  side.  The  most  revolting  chapter  in  all  the  long  story  of. 
Russian  outrage  and  oppression  of  Aleutian  natives  is  devoted  to 
a  recital  of  the  savage  brutality  of  Solovaiyah  and  Notoorbin,  who 
lived  here  during  the  winter  of  1763. 

Steam-vessels  usually  make  the  jagged  headlands  and  peaks  of 
Tigalda  Island  as  their  first  land-fall  en  route  from  San  Francisco  to 
Oonalashka  and  Bering  Sea.  They  then  shape  their  course  into 
Akootan  Straits  very  easily  and  safely.  The  currents  and  winds, 
which  always  cause  a  variation  of  the  ship's  course,  never  carry  the 
vessel  much  to  the  right  of  Tigalda,  or  to  the  left  of  Avatanak,  so 
that  an  experienced  Alaskan  mariner  has  but  little  difficulty — even 
though  dense  fog  prevails,  which  only  gives  him  fitful  gleams  of 
the  rude  landscape — in  recognizing  some  one  of  the  characteristic 
peaks  or  bluffs  of  these  Krenitzin  islands ;  then,  with  a  known 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  155 

point  of  departure,  he  can  literally  feel  his  way  into  Oonalashka 
Harbor.  He  almost  always  has  to  do  so,  for  seldom  indeed  does  he 
enjoy  as  fair  a  sweep  of  these  coasts  of  Avatanak  and  Tigalda  as 
that  viewed  by  the  author,  who  scanned  this  rocky  group  in  a  calm, 
clear  September  afternoon  of  1876. 

To-day,  Tigalda  is  an  utterly  abandoned  island,  given  over 
during  the  summer  to  the  undisturbed  possession  of  foxes  and 
those  flocks  of  "  tundra  "  geese  which  settle  on  the  uplands  to  breed 
and  preen  in  safety.  When  moulting  here,  they  have  the  shelter  of 
several  lakes,  upon  which  they  swim  in  mocking  security,  even  if 
crafty,  lurking  Reynard  attempts  to  capture  them.  Near  the 
largest  lake  on  this  island  a  settlement  once  throve.  The  inhab- 
itants had  control  of  a  mine  of  red  and  golden-yellow  chalk,  which 
formed  the  base  of  a  pigment  highly  prized  by  all  Aleutes,  far 
and  near,  for  painting  their  ancient  grass,  and  wooden  hats,  and 
other  work  of  the  same  materials.  On  the  north  side  of  this  island 
is  a  singular  cluster  of  needle  rocks  which  rise,  as  twenty-eight 
points,  abruptly  from  the  sea.  On  them,  in  positive  security,  the 
big  burgomaster  gull  breeds,  and  the  eagle-like  pinions  of  this  bird 
bear  thousands  of  heavy  bodies  in  stately  flight  over  and  around 
these  nesting-places.  The  shrill,  hawk-like  screams  of  those 
"  chikies  "  can  be  heard  far  out  at  sea,  over  the  noise  of  the  surf. 

Oogalgan  rock,  which  stands  up  boldly,  and  defies  that  fury  of 
an  ocean  in  the  mouth  of  Oonalga  Straits,  is  another  striking  head- 
land which  the  mariner  should  be  well  acquainted  with,  for  in 
times  of  arrival,  when  fog  prevails,  it  is  often  the  first  land-fall 
made  after  leaving  California  or  Oregon,  when  bound  in  for  Oona- 
lashka. It  is  a  bleak,  tempest-swept  islet,  presenting  to  the  Paci- 
fic a  black,  reddish  front  of  abrupt  precipitous  cliffs,  without  a 
sign  of  vegetation  in  the  crevices ;  but,  from  the  inside  passages  of 
Akootan  and  Oonalga,  it  exhibits  two  or  three  saddle-backed 
slopes  covered  with  green  mosses  and  lichens.  Flocks  of  those 
comical  shovel-billed  sea-parrots  breed  upon  it,  and  skurry  in  their 
rapid,  noiseless  manner  all  around. 

At  last  our  little  schooner  "  comes  about,"  to  make  that  "  reach  " 
which  is  to  take  us  into  the  peace  and  quiet  of  a  beautiful  harbor, 
and,  with  every  sail  drawing  hard,  she  fills  away,  and  we  glide 
swiftly  ahead.  That  richly  banded  waterfall  bluff  on  our  right,  and 
the  striking  outline  of  Kahlechta  Point,  over  the  "  Bishop  "  rock 
under  it,  on  our  left,  are  eagerly  scanned  as  we  dash  through  the 


156  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

heavy  roll  of  Akootan  Straits  and  its  violent  tide-rips,  the  surf  break- 
ing on  the  "  Bishop  "  and  the  point  beyond  it  most  grandly.  A  short 
hour,  and  the  rough  water  is  passed.  We  have  entered  Captain's 
Harbor,  and  are  "  fanning  "  along  over  a  glassy  surface  up  to  our 
anchorage  off  from,  but  close  by,  the  village  of  Oonalashka.* 

What  San  Francisco  is  to  California,  so  is  Oonalashka  to  all 
Alaska  west  of  Kadiak.  It  is  the  point  of  all  arrivals  and  all  de- 
partures for  and  from  this  vast  area.  It  is  most  fitly  chosen,  and 
beautifully  located.  From  earliest  time,  an  Aleutian  legend  never 
failed  in  its  rendition  to  the  dusky  people  then  living  in  their 
yourts  and  kazarmies  to  vividly  impress  upon  the  native  mind  a 
full  sense  of  those  pleasures  of  life  and  hope  at  Dloolook  ;  not,  how- 
ever, as  expressed  so  sadly  by  our  own  bard,  whose  inimitable 
poem  declares  that  the  wolf  howled  long  and  dismally  from  this 
lovely  shore  of  Eloolook. 

Cold  on  his  midnight  watch  the  breezes  blow 
From  wastes  that  slumber  in  eternal  snow, 
And  waft  across  the  wave's  tumultuous  roar 
The  wolfs  long  Jiowlfrom  Ounalaska's  shore. 

If  Campbell  had  only  substituted  "Akoon"  for  "  Oonalashka" 
in  this  much-admired  verse  descriptive  of  savage  desolation,  he 
would  not  have  marred  a  famous  passage  by  the  slightest  error — 
but,  at  Oonalashka,  never,  never  was  a  wolf  ever  known  to  be.  In 
1830,  however,  two  of  these  animals  got  over  from  Oonimak  as  far 
west  as  Akoon— on  drifting  ice-floes,  most  likely.  They  were  speed- 
ily noticed  by  the  natives,  who  killed  them  at  once,  so  Veniaminov 
says,  for  they  were  cordially  hated  by  the  Aleutes,  since  these 
beasts  "kill  foxes  and  spoil  the  traps." 

The  panorama  of  land  and  water  here  in  summer  is  an  exceed- 
ingly attractive  one — in  its  effect  fully  as  charming  as  is  the  lovely 
spread  of  Sitka  Sound  ;  but  its  character  is  widely  opposed.  If 
we  chance  to  view  Oonalashka  in  clear  sunshine  during  a  day  in  the 
summer  months,  we  will  recall  this  picture  to  our  mind's  eye  often 
with  positive  pleasure.  Here,  strung  along  for  half  a  mile  just 
back  of  a  curved  and  pebbly  beach,  is  an  irregular  row  of  frame, 
single-story  cottages,  a  large  Greek  church,  and  a  fine  parsonage, 

*  The   natives  always  called  this  settlement    "  Illoolook,"   or    "curved 
beach.'* 


2  I 

I  r. 

<n      = 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  157 

three  or  four  big  wooden  warehouses  with  a  wharf  running  well 
into  the  harbor,  two  or  more  trading-stores,  one  of  them  quite  im- 
posing in  its  size,  and  fifty  or  sixty  barraboras — these  constitute  the 
abiding-places  of  the  four  hundred  residents  of  Illoolook.  They 
are  placed  upon  a  narrow  spit  of  alluvium  that  divides  the  sea  from 
the  waters  of  a  small  creek  which  runs  just  back  of  the  village 
right  under  these  hills  that  abruptly  rise  there,  to  rise  again,  farther 
inland,  to  higher  peaks  in  turn.  A 'rich,  dark,  vivid  green  covers 
and  clothes  the  mountain  slopes,  the  valleys,  and  the  hills,  even  to 
the  loftiest  summits,  where  only  a  light  patch  of  glistening  snow 
is  now  and  then  seen  relieved  thereon  by  the  grayish-brown  rocky 
shingle.  These  hills  and  mountains,  rising  on  every  hand  above 
us  from  the  land-locked  shores  of  Captain's  Harbor,  bear  no  tim- 
ber whatsoever,  but  the  mantle  of  circumpolar  sphagnum,  inter- 
spersed with  grasses  and  a  large  flora,  makes  ample  amends  for  that 
deficiency  and  hide  their  nakedness  completely — in  their  narrow 
defiles  and  over  the  bottom-land  patches  grass  grows  with  tropi- 
cal luxuriance,  waist-high,  with  small  clumps  of  stunted  willow- 
bushes  clinging  to  the  banks  of  little  water-courses  and  rivu- 
lets. This  is  the  only  growing  timber  found  anywhere  on  the 
Aleutian  chain.  It  never  becomes  stouter  than  the  thickness  of  a 
man's  wrist,  and  the  tallest  bushes  in  scattered  thickets  are  never 
over  six  or  seven  feet  high,  rapidly  dwindling  in  growth  as  they  as- 
cend the  hillsides. 

Especially  gratifying  is  the  landscape,  thus  adorned,  to  the 
senses  of  any  ship-worn  traveller,  who  literally  feasts  his  eyes  upon 
it.  But  if  he  should  go  ashore  and  step  upon  what  appeared  to 
him,  from  the  vessel's  deck,  to  be  a  firm  greensward,  he  will  find 
instead  a  quaking,  tremulous  bog,  or  he  will  slide  over  a  moss- 
grown  shingle,  painted  and  concealed  by  cryptogamic  life,  where 
he  fondly  anticipated  a  free  and  ready  path.  The  thick,  dense 
carpet  of  crowberry*  plants  that  is  spread  everywhere  over  the  hill- 
sides, into  which  the  pedestrian  sinks  ankle-deep  at  every  step, 
makes  a  stroll  very  laborious  when  undertaken  at  any  distance  from 
the  sea-beach. 

If  a  wide  survey  is  accomplished  here  of  Oonalashka  Island,  the 
studies  made  will  give  a  perfect  understanding  of  every  other  island 

*  Empetrum  nigrum.  The  natives  call  it  "shecksa."  It  is  their  chief 
supply  of  fuel. 


158  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

to  the  westward  in  this  great  archipelago,  which  is  enveloped  dur* 
ing  the  major  portion  of  each  year  in  fogs,  and  swept  over  by  fre- 
quent  gales.  Such  a  combination  of  the  elements,  with  mists  and 
hidden  sea-currents,  make  it  a  region  dreaded  by  mariners  ;  yet 
there  is  enough  sunshine  now  and  then  to  make  the  life  of  our  lands- 
men very  comfortable,  even  though  they  cannot  engage  in  any  other 
profitable  calling  than  that  of  sea-otter  trading  with  the  natives. 

Summers  are  mild,  foggy,  and  humid.  The  average  temperature 
is  about  50°  Fahrenheit.  Winters  are  also  mild,  foggy,  and  humid, 
with  a  slightly  colder  average  of  30°.  The  thermometer  nowhere 
in  the  Aleutian  chain  ever  went  much  below  zero  at  sea-level. 
There  is  no  record  even  of  a  consecutive  three  or  four  weeks  in 
winter  lower  than  3°  or  5°  above  zero.  The  mercury  seldom  ever 
falls  as  low  as  10°.  There  is  no  nice  distinction  of  the  four  seasons 
here.  We  can  notice  only  two.  Winter  begins  in  October  and 
ends  by  May  1st  to  5th,  when  summer  suddenly  asserts  herself  for 
the  rest  of  the  year  not  thus  appropriated. 

Flurries  of  snow  sometimes  fall  in  August  and  often  in  Septem- 
ber. It  never  stays  long  on  the  ground  or  even  on  the  hilltops 
then,  and  generally  melts  as  fast  as  it  comes,  away  into  December ; 
but  on  the  highest  peaks  it  is  seen  all  the  year  round.  From 
January  to  May  1st  or  5th,  as  a  rule,  snow  covers  everything  in  a 
spotless  shroud  from  two  to  five  feet  deep.  The  high,  blustering 
wintry  gales  make  this  snow  intensely  disagreeable  to  us,  driving 
into  and  through  air-tight  crevices,  and  literally  making  the  inmates 
of  the  village  huts  prisoners  for  weeks  at  a  time.  The  dogs  and 
sleds  so  common  and  characteristic  elsewhere  in  the  vast  expanse 
of  Alaska  are  never  seen  here.  They  would  be  a  mere  nuisance  to 
these  people,  since  the  rugged  inequalities  of  the  Aleutian  country 
simply  prohibit  their  use. 

This  is,  however,  the  chosen  land  for  lingering  fogs.  The  foggy 
cloudiness  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  is  most  remarkable.  There  are 
not  a  dozen  fogless  days  in  the  whole  year  at  Oonalashka,  though 
the  sun  may  be  seen  half  the  time.  Fifty  sunshiny  days  in  the 
year  is  a  handsome  average.  Thunder  is  never  heard,  or  seldom 
ever,  while  lightning  is  never  seen,  although  the  dark  swelling 
clouds  seem  to  constantly  suggest  it ;  also  the  northern  lights— 
these  auroral  displays  are  almost  unknown,  and  when  seen  are  very, 
very  faint. 

But  the  wind — ah,  the  winds  that  riot  over  this  range  of  rocky 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  159 

islands  !  They  are  always  stirring.  A  perfect  calm  has  never  been 
recorded  at  Oonalashka.  They  are  strong  and  come  from  all  points 
of  the  compass  ;  they  are  freshest  and  most  violent  in  October  and 
November,  December,  and  March.  Gales  follow  each  other  in  quick 
succession  during  these  months  every  year,  lasting  usually  about 
three  days  each. 

All  sides  of  Oonalashka  Island  are  deeply  indented  by  bays  and 
fiords  ;  but  the  points  on  the  southern  coast  are  avoided  and  not  well 
known.  They  are  not  safe  to  approach  on  account  of  reefs  and 
rocks,  awash  and  sunken,  which  extend  out  to  sea  a  long  distance, 
and  upon  them  the  heavy  billows  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  break  in- 
cessantly, as  well  as  against  the  cliff-beaches  of  this  forbidding  shore. 
But  around  the  northern  and  eastern  margins  of  the  island  more 
good  harbors  are  located  than  can  be  found  on  all  of  the  other  islands 
of  the  Aleutian  archipelago  put  together.  They  call  the  bay  which 
we  entered,  as  we  sailed  in  from  Akootan  Pass,  "  Captain's  Harbor." 
It  is  the  same  place  where  the  natives  first  gazed  upon  a  white  man 
and  his  ship  after  the  frightful  massacres  of  1762  and  1763.  Here 
in  1769  Layvashava,  with  a  crew  of  those  Siberian  promishlyniks, 
anchored  during  the  whole  of  one  autumn  and  engaged  the  aston- 
ished inhabitants  in  active  trade  ;  but  it  was  a  guarded  and  tedious 
barter,  since  the  Aleutes  had  a  lively  recollection  of  the  terrible 
past,  so  recent  and  so  bloody. 

The  island  of  Oonalashka  chanced  to  be  the  scene  of  that  only 
real  desperate  and  fatal  blow  ever  struck  by  the  simple  natives  of 
the  Aleutian  chain  at  their  Cossack  oppressors.  By  1761  the 
Kussians  had  advanced  to  the  eastward  as  far  as  Oonimak,  and  up 
to  this  time  the  relations  between  the  natives  and  the  white  in- 
vaders had  been  altogether  of  an  outwardly  friendly  character,  the 
former  submitting,  as  a  rule,  patiently  to  the  demands  of  the  new- 
comers, but  the  Cossack  Tartars,  encouraged  by  their  easy  con- 
quests, rapidly  proceeded  from  bad  to  worse,  committing  outrages 
of  every  kind,  so  that  in  1762  they  had  reduced  the  Aleutes  to  the 
verge  of  absolute  slavery,  and  continued  to  act  in  this  manner  until 
the  patience  and  the  timidity  of  the  simple  race  were  exhausted.  The 
arrival  of  a  brutal,  domineering,  lustful  party  of  over  one  hundred 
and  fifty  of  these  Cossack  Russians  at  Chernovsky,  on  the  north- 
west coast  of  this  island,  in  the  summer  of  1762,  under  the  nominal 
command  of  a  Siberian  trader  named  Drooshinnin,  proved  to  be 
"  the  last  straw  laid  upon  the  camel's  back."  At  a  given  signal  the 


160  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

despoiled  and  ravished  natives  arose  in  every  one  of  the  then  popu- 
lous Oonalashkan  settlements  (twenty-four  villages),  nocked  to- 
gether, and  unitedly  fell  upon  their  oppressors.  They  slaughtered 
every  man  except  four,  who  happened,  luckily  for  them,  to  have 
been  absent  from  their  vessels  in  Chernovsky  Harbor,  hunting 
grouse  in  the  mountains.  They  were  secreted  in  the  recesses  of  a 
hot  cave  (that  is  still  pointed  out  in  the  flanks  of  Makooshin  Moun- 
tain), by  the  kindness  of  a  charitable  native,  until  they  were  able 
to  escape  and  join  the  expedition  of  Solovaiyah,  which  appeared  at 
the  offing  of  Oomnak  early  in  the  following  year.  Fired  by  a 
recital  of  the  Drooshinnin  slaughter,  this  fierce  Cossack  turned  his 
half-savage  comrades,  and  worse  yet,  himself,  loose  upon  the  un- 
happy people  of  Oonalashka,  and  literally  exterminated  every  male, 
old  and  young,  that  he  could  find,  visiting  each  settlement  in  swift 
rotation  of  death  and  desolation.  The  men  and  boys  fled  to  the 
fastnesses  of  the  interior,  followed  by  many  of  the  women,  and 
when  the  inclemencies  of  winter  began  to  threaten  their  starvation, 
they  humbly  sued  for  peace,  and  became  the  abject  and  submissive 
vassals  of  the  promishlyniks  ever  after. 

A  smoking  volcano  that  rears  its  ragged  crown  high  above  all 
the  surrounding  hills  and  peaks  is  Makooshin ;  it  juts,  alone  and 
unsupported,  as  a  bold  promontory,  five  thousand  four  hundred 
and  seventy-five  feet  above,  and  into  the  green  waters  of  Bering 
Sea.  It  is  the  chief  point  of  scenic  interest  on  Oonalashka  Island, 
and  the  objective  one  in  particular,  if  the  day  be  clear,  as  the 
visitor  sails  up  and  into  the  harbor  of  Illoolook.  While  it  is  not 
near  so  majestic  in  elevation,  or  perfect  of  outline,  as  the  Shishal- 
din  Mountain,  yet  it  is  wild  and  striking.  It  can  be  easily  ascended 
in  July  and  August,  when  the  winds  do  not  blow  their  hardest,  and 
when  there  is  the  least  snow.  No  one  remembers,  nor  is  there  any 
legend  of  any  disturbance  more  serious  than  the  shaking  of  the 
earth  and  loud  noises  which  Makooshin  is  charged  with.  In  1818 
it  made  the  whole  island  tremble  violently  during  a  period  of  sev- 
eral days,  emitting,  however,  nothing  but  dense  columns  of  smoke, 
and  fine  ashes  were  sifted  lightly  everywhere  with  the  winds.  A 
resounding  cannonade  that  then  burst  from  its  bowels  sorely  alarmed 
the  people,  however,  who  fled  from  their  little  hamlets  clustered  at 
its  base. 

Immediately  under  the  steep  slopes  and  large  proportions  of  this 
quiescent  volcano  is  a  small  settlement  of  sixty  natives,  housed  in 


THE   GREAT  ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  161 

those  typical  Aleutian  barraboras,  with  a  small  chapel,  of  course. 
Here,  in  1880,  lived  the  oldest  inhabitant  of  the  Oonalashka  parish, 
an  Aleut  who  had  an  undisputed  age  of  eighty-three  years.  These 
simple  souls  have  that  same  faith  in  the  good  behavior  of  Ma- 
kooshin  which  distinguished  the  citizens  of  Herculaneum  and  Pom- 
peii with  reference  to  the  dangers  of  Vesuvius.  But  the  most 
amusing  indignation  is  expressed  by  them  in  speaking  of  the  bad 
behavior  of  an  Oomnak  crater,  just  across  the  straits  from  them, 
which  in  1878  broke  out  into  earthquakes,  smoke,  fire,  and  mud- 
showers,  that  so  frightened  the  fish  all  about  in  these  waters  as  to 
literally  cause  a  famine  at  Makooshin.  The  finny  tribes  seem  to  be 
driven  off  by  a  trembling  of  the  rocky  bottom  to  the  sea. 

It  was  at  Makooshin  that  the  first  Kussians  landed  under  Stepan 
Glottov  in  1757.  These  traders  in  their  reports  declared  that  the 
natives  here  then  "  were  very  numerous  and  warlike,"  and  that  they 
had  a  great  deal  of  that  peculiar  trouble  with  them  which  we  so 
thoroughly  understand  now  in  the  light  of  their  infamous  record. 
Certain  it  is  that  a  more  innocent-looking,  indolent  group  of  Aleutes 
cannot  be  found  in  all  this  region  to-day  than  are  these  descendants 
of  the  "  blood-thirsty  savages,"  which  Glottov  saw  in  council  here. 
They  trap  cross-foxes  on  the  flanks  of  the  great  mountain  which  over- 
shadows their  settlement,  and  do  but  little  else.  They  are  not  at  all 
impressed  by  the  volcano,  and  cannot  understand  why  we  should 
walk  over  a  long  portage  of  eight  miles  from  Oonalashka  Harbor 
just  to  ascend  it :  because,  they  say  truly,  that  the  chances  are  ten 
to  one  against  our  seeing  anything  when  we  shall  get  up  there,  in- 
asmuch as  fog  will  surely  shut  down  over  everything.  In  spite, 
however,  of  their  argument  we  ascended,  and  they  were  right.  We 
could  not  see  a  rod  beyond  our  footing  in  any  direction,  and  had  it 
not  been  for  their  guidance,  as  the  fog  continued,  we  would  have 
had  a  very  difficult  matter  in  regaining  the  lowlands  at  all  that 
day.* 

When  Makooshin  is  seen  from  Bering  Sea,  in  the  early  autumn, 
the  snow  rests  upon  its  peculiar  form  so  as  to  make  a  most  strik- 
ing suggestion  of  its  being  extended  as  a  huge  corpse,  with  a  sheet 
thrown  over  the  upper  part  only  of  the  body.  The  natives  have 


*  But  on  two  other  occasions  the  author  has  had  clear  and  unfogged 
glimpses  of  this  singular  mountain,  which  he  made  careful  studies  of ;  they 
are  presented  to  the  reader  in  this  connection. 


162  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

many  folk-lore  stories  and  legends  which  belong  to  the  mountain  ; 
but  these  yarns  are  like  the  ballads  of  our  sailor  boys,  they  run  on 
forever,  ending  in  the  same  manner  as  they  began.  A  hot  spring 
sends  a  little  rivulet  of  warm  water  across  our  path  as  we  come 
down,  and  we  notice  that  most  of  the  boggy  places  are  tinged  with 
iron  oxides. 

In  over-looking  any  of  these  islands  from  an  interior  view  of 
high  altitude,  you  are  impressed  by  the  large  number  of  fresh-water 
lakes  and  ponds  that  nestle  in  the  valleys,  in  the  uplands,  and  even 
in  the  depressions  on  the  loftiest  summits.  One  of  the  prettiest 
pools  of  water  which  can  be  imagined  is  formed  by  the  red,  bowl- 
shaped  walls  of  an  extinct  crater  that  makes  the  top  of  Paistrakov 
Mountain  :  this  is  a  very  prominent  landmark  just  across  the  bay 
from  Oonalashka  village,  looking  west. 

A  superb  survey  of  Oonalashka  Island  can  be  made  by  the  as- 
cent of  Mount  Wood,  which  rears  its  sharp,  syenitic  peak  two  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  feet  behind  and  right  over  the  village  and  har- 
bor of  Illoolook.  The  path  to  the  summit  is  not  difficult,  and  the 
panorama  spread  out  under  your  eyes  well  repays  the  effort.  It 
gives  you  a  better  idea  of  what  a  singularly  mountainous  region  the 
island  is,  of  the  comparative  absence  of  level  or  bottom-land  areas 
— everything  seems  to  spring  from  the  surrounding  ocean  mirror, 
to  hills — from  hills,  in  turn,  to  mountains  that  end  in  sharp  and 
rugged  peaks.  Upon  the  rocky,  frost-riven  shingle  of  these  sum- 
mits nothing  can  grow  except  those  tiny  polar  lichens  which  we  find 
existing,  clinging  to  the  earth  and  rocks  of  the  uttermost  limits  of 
the  North  as  far  as  we  have  knowledge. 

If  the  fog  lifts  its  gray-blue  curtain  from  the  unruffled,  clear 
surface  of  Captain's  Harbor,  and  rolls  back  and  away  from  the  red 
and  brown  head  of  the  cold  crater  of  Paistrakov  on  the  left,  and 
from  the  black,  jagged  outlines  of  the  "Prince  "  on  your  right,  you 
will  then  have  at  your  feet  a  picture  of  surpassing  scenic  beauty, 
both  of  contour  and  color,  before  and  under  your  delighted  vision. 
The  rougher  waters  of  Bering  Sea  have  power  no  farther  inland 
than  their  foaming  at  the  feet  of  Waterfall  Head  and  the  dark  bases 
of  the  Prince,  for  they  rapidly  fade  into  a  smooth,  still  peace  as  the 
queer,  hook -like  sand-spit  of  Oolachta  Harbor  is  reached,  and  the 
anchorage  of  Illoolook  village  is  attained  ;  its  houses  and  bar- 
raboras  just  peep  out  from  the  obscuring  foothills  of  the  moun- 
tain upon  which  we  stand,  and  we  can  faintly  discern  a  deli- 


THE   GREAT  ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  163 

cate  fringe  of  sea-foam  along  the  border  of  a  long-curved  beach 
in  front.  Two  schooners  and  a  steamer  lie  motionless  upon  the 
glassy  bay,  like  so  many  microscopic  water  insects. 

Turning  right  about  and  looking  south,  our  eyes  fall  upon  a 
radically  different  landscape — a  bewildering,  labyrinthian  maze  of 
Oonalashkan  mountain  peaks  and  ranges,  rising  in  defiance  to  all 
law  and  order  of  position,  with  that  lovely  island-studded  water 
of  the  head  to  Captain's  Harbor  in  the  foreground.  Ridge  after 
ridge,  summit  after  summit,  fades  out  one  behind  the  other  into 
the  oblivion  of  distance,  where  the  suggestion  of  a  continuance  to 
this  same  wild  interior  is  vividly  made,  in  spite  of  wreaths  of  fog 
and  lines  of  snowy  sheen,  relieved  so  brightly  by  that  greenish-blue 
of  the  mosses  and  sphagnum  in  which  they  are  set.  A  few  pretty 
snow-buntings  flutter  over  the  rocks  to  the  leeward  of  our  position ; 
their  white,  restless  forms  are  the  only  evidence  or  indication  of 
animal  life  in  our  rugged  vista  of  an  Oonalashkan  interior.  Yet, 
could  we  see  better,  we  might  notice  a  lurking  red  fox,  and  flush  a 
bevy  or  two  of  summer-dressed  ptarmigan,  feeding  as  they  do  on 
the  crowberries,  the  sphagnum,  willow-buds  and  insect-life. 

While  gazing  into  the  endless  succession  of  valleys,  and  scan- 
ning the  varied  peaks,  a  puff  of  moist  wind  suddenly  strikes  our 
cheeks — we  turn  to  its  direction  and  behold  it  bearing  in  and  up 
from  Bering  Sea — a  thick  and  darkening  bank  of  fog  which  rapidly 
envelopes  and  conceals  everything  that  it  meets.  It  ends  our  sight- 
seeing, and  peremptorily  orders  a  return  to  the  village  below  from 
which  we  came. 

When  we  look  at  the  Aleutes  we  are  impressed  at  once  with  their 
remarkable  non-resemblance  to  the  Sitkans.  They  constantly  re- 
mind us  of  Japanese  faces  and  forms  in  another  costume.  The 
average  Aleut  is  not  a  large  man  ;  he  is  below  our  medium  stand- 
ard— being  about  five  feet  six  inches  in  stature,  though,  of  course, 
there  are  a  few  exceptions  to  this  rule,  when  examples  will  be  found 
six  feet  tall,  and  many  that  are  mere  dwarfs.  The  women  are  in 
turn  proportionately  smaller.  The  hair  is  coarse,  straight,  and 
black ;  the  beard  scanty  ;  cheek-bones  are  broad,  high,  and  very 
prominent ;  the  nose  very  insignificant  and  almost  flattened  out  at 
the  bridge — the  nostrils  thick  and  fleshy  ;  the  eyes  very  wide- set — 
very  small,  too,  with  a  jet-black  pupil  and  iris ;  the  eyebrows  very 
faintly  marked ;  the  lips  are  thick ;  the  mouth  large  ;  the  lower  jaw 
is  very  square  and  prognathous  ;  the  ears  are  small,  set  close  to 


164  OUR    ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

the  head,  and  almost  always  pierced  for  brass  or  silver  rings.  The 
complexion  is  a  light  yellowish-brown  ;  in  youth  it  is  often  fair, 
almost  white,  with  a  faint  blush  in  the  cheeks  ;  in  middle  age  and 
to  senility  the  skin  always  becomes  very  strongly  wrinkled  and 
seamed,  with  a  leathery  harshness.  They  all  have  full  even  sets  of 
teeth,  but  never  take  the  least  care  of  them  whatever.  They  have 
small,  well-shaped  hands  and  feet,  but  the  finger-nails  are  exceed- 
ingly thin  and  brittle,  bitten  off,  and  never  trimmed  neatly.  They 
walk  in  a  clumsy,  shambling  manner,  with  none  of  that  lithe, 
springy  stepping  so  characteristic  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Indians. 
When  we  meet  them  as  we  saunter  through  the  settlement,  men, 
women,  and  children  alike  drop  their  eyes  to  the  ground,  and  pass 
by  in  stupid  humility,  or  indifference,  as  the  case  may  be. 

As  we  see  these  people  at  Oonalashka,  so  they  are  seen  in  every 
respect  elsewhere,  as  they  exist  between  Attoo  and  Bristol  Bay  and 
the  Shoomagin  Islands.  They  spend  most  of  their  time,  men  and 
women,  in  their  skin-canoes,  hunting  the  sea-lion  and  sea-otter — in 
codfishing  and  travelling  to  and  from  their  favorite  salmon-runs 
and  berrying-grounds.  Therefore,  they  have  not  enabled  a  sym- 
metrical figure  to  develop — their  legs  are  always  sprung  at  the 
knees,  some  badly  bowed,  and  all  are  unsteady  in  walking.  While 
there  is  nothing  about  the  countenances  of  the  women  or  girls 
which  will  warrant  the  term  of  handsome,  yet  they  are  not  so  ugly 
as  the  squaws  of  the  Sitkan  archipelago.  Many  of  them  have  very 
kindly  expressions,  and  a  gleam  of  true  womanly  instinct  far  above 
their  surroundings. 

No  people  are  more  amiable  or  docile  than  are  these  natives  of 
the  Aleutian  Islands  to-day.  They  are  quiet  and  respectful  in  their 
intercourse  with  the  traders,  and  are  all  duly  baptized  members  of 
the  Greek  Catholic  Church.  A  chapel  is  never  absent  from  their 
villages.  They  hunt  sea-otters  and  trap  foxes  for  their  means  of 
trading  for  those  simple  luxuries  and  necessaries  of  their  life  which 
they  cannot  find  in  their  own  country.  There  are  no  other  fur- 
bearing  animals  here,  and  no  other  industries  whatever  in  which 
they  can  engage. 

As  they  live  here  to-day,  they  are  married  and  sustain  very  faith- 
fully the  relation  of  husband  and  wife.  Each  family,  as  a  rule,  has 
its  own  hut  or  barrabora.  They  have  long,  long  ago  ceased  to  dress 
in  skins ;  but  they  still  retain  and  wear  the  primitive  water-proof 
coat  or  "karnlayka"  and  boots  or  tarbosars,  which  are  made  from 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  165 

seal  and  sea-lion  intestines.  In  the  poverty-smitten  stations  of 
Akoon  and  Avatanak  the  early  bird-skin  "  parkas  "  will  probably  be 
most  commonly  worn  ;  (but  it  is  because  these  natives  are  so  miser- 
ably poor  in  furs  that  they  do  so).  They  get  from  the  trader's  store 
at  every  village  a  full  assortment  of  our  own  shop-made  clothes, 
and,  on  Sunday  in  especial,  many  shiny  broadcloth  suits  will  be  dis- 
played by  the  luckier  hunters.  The  women  are  all  attired  in  cotton 
dresses  and  gowns,  made  up  pretty  closely  in  imitation  of  the  pre- 
vailing fashions  among  our  own  people.  They  wear  the  boots  and 
shoes  which  are  regularly  brought  up  from  San  Francisco.  But 
whenever  they  go  out  fox-trapping,  or  enter  their  bidarkas,  they 
wear  the  "tarbosar"  or  water- proof  boot  of  primitive  use — the  up- 
pers to  it  are  made  from  the  intestines  or  the  gullets  of  marine 
mammalia,  and  it  is  soled  with  the  tough  flipper  palms  of  a  sea-lion. 

They  have  the  same  weakness  for  our  conventional  high  stove- 
pipe hats  which  we  display  ;  but  the  prevalence  of  those  boisterous 
gales  and  winds  peculiar  to  these  latitudes  prevents  that  use  of  the 
cherished  "  beaver  "  that  they  otherwise  would  make  of  it.  Instead, 
they  universally  wear  low-crowned,  leather-peaked  caps,  to  which 
they  love  to  add  a  gay  red-ribbon  band,  suggested  most  likely 
by  the  recollection  which  they  have  of  that  gorgeous  regalia  of  the 
Russian  army  and  naval  officers,  who  were  wont  to  appear  in  full 
dress  very  often  when  among  them  in  olden  time. 

The  Aleutian  men  dress  very  plainly,  young  and  old  alike,  little 
or  no  attention  being  given  by  them  to  details  of  color  or  orna- 
mentation, as  is  the  common  usage  and  practice  of  most  semi-civil- 
ized races ;  but  they  do  lavish  a  great  deal  of  care  and  skill  in  the 
decoration  of  their  antique  "kamlaykas,"  "  tarbosars,"  and  their  bi- 
darkas :  the  seams  of  these  garments  and  the  boats  are  frequently 
embellished  with  gay  tufts  of  gaily  colored  sea-bird  feathers  and 
lines  of  goose-quill  embroidery. 

True  feminine  desire  for  all  the  bright  ribbons  and  cheap  jew- 
elry that  a  trader  spreads  before  her  consumes  the  heart  of  the 
Aleutian  woman,  especially  if  she  be  young  and  admired  by  her 
people.  The  women  are,  therefore,  only  limited  by  their  means, 
when  it  comes  to  bedecking  themselves  with  all  of  these  trinkets 
and  gewgaws  of  the  kind  which  the  artful  trader  exhibits  for  that 
purpose.  They  braid  their  hair  up  in  two  queues  usually  and  let 
them  hang  down  behind  upon  their  backs.  They  never  wear  bon- 
nets, or  hats,  for  that  matter  ;  but  as  they  go  to  church  or  from  hut 


166  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

to  hut  they  tie  cotton  handkerchiefs  over  their  heads.  When  hasty 
little  errands  out  of  doors,  or  sudden  gossiping  trips  are  under- 
taken, a  shawl  is  thrown  over  the  woman's  head  and  held  there, 
with  the  gathered  ends  together,  under  her  chin  by  one  hand.  The 
shawls  are  of  bright  colors,  and  supply  the  place  of  woollen  gar- 
ments, though  ready-made  cloaks  and  dolmans  are  not  uncommon 
at  those  points  where  the  sea-otter-hunting  harvest  is  the  best : 
her  skirts,  overskirts,  waists,  and  stockings  are  all  of  cotton. 

As  these  people  have  really  but  one  idea  and  no  variation  of  oc- 
cupation, they  all  live  alike,  in  the  same  general  manner.  The 
difference  between  the  families  is  only  that  of  relative  cleanliness 
and  thrift.  The  most  important  and  serious  business  of  their 
shore-life  is  that  embodied  in  the  construction  and  repair  of  their 
huts,  or  barrabkies.  If  it  is  well  built  it  makes  a  warm,  dry  shel- 
ter, and  answers  every  requirement  of  a  comfortable  domicile.  An 
excavation  is  made  in  the  earth  on  the  spot  selected  in  the  village 
site,  ten  or  twelve  feet  square,  and  three  or  four  feet  deep.  A  wooden 
frame  and  lining  is  then  put  into  this  sub-cellar,  and  the  excavated 
earth  is  then  thrown  back  against  and  over  it,  with  an  outer  wall  of 
carefully-cut  sod  and  boggy  peat,  being  laid  up  two  and  three  feet 
thick,  sloping  down  to  which  is  a  well-thatched  roof  of  grass  and 
sedge,  that  abounds  everywhere  on  the  sandy  margins  of  the  sea- 
shore. Some  of  these  huts  are  made  very  much  larger  than  this 
pattern  just  denned,  having  regularly  spread  wings,  like  a  Maltese 
cross,  on  the  floor.  The  entrance  to  the  barrabkie  is  usually 
through  a  low  doorway  that  is  made  to  a  small  annex  or  storm 
hallway,  also  built  of  sod  and  peat.  This  shields  another  little 
door,  which  opens  into  the  living-room  that  the  architect  steps 
down  into  as  he  enters.  A  single  window  is  put  at  the  opposite 
end  of  the  room  from  the  door,  in  which  a  small  glazed  sash  is 
usually  employed.  The  floor  is  either  covered  with  boards  which 
the  native  has  purchased  from  the  trader,  or  else  it  is  the  hard- 
trodden  earth  itself,  upon  which  the  women  strew  grass  and  spread 
mats  of  the  same  texture. 

A  diminutive  cast-iron  stove  is  now  very  generally  used  by  the 
Aleutes.  It  commonly  stands  right  in  the  centre  of  the  room,  and 
upon  it  the  cooking  can  be  done,  instead  of  being  driven  to  the  hall- 
way fireplace,  or  "  povarnik,"  of  the  olden  time,  when  the  smoke  then 
stifled  them  from  the  burning  of  that  fat  of  seals,  fish  and  birds, 
which  was  used  very  largely  for  fuel.  Therefore,  they  were  obliged 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  167 

to  stew  and  broil  on  a  special  fireplace  constructed  outside  of  the 
living-room.  A  great  many  old-style  "  peechka  "  stoves  of  the  Rus- 
sians are  still  in  use,  but  no  new  ones  are  being  made  any  more, 
since  the  introduction  of  our  little  iron  stoves.  This  living-room 
of  the  hut  is  usually  curtained  or  partitioned  into  two  sections,  one 
of  which  is  the  bedchamber,  or  "spalniah."  They  have  a  great 
variety  of  beds  and  bedsteads,  or  bunks  rather.  They  are  proud 
of  a  well-stuffed  couch  of  feathers,  and  take  more  real,  solid  com- 
fort in  sleeping  thereon  than  in  anything  else  that  transpires  of  an 
enjoyable  nature  in  their  lives.  The  dealers  sell  a  series  of  the 
most  gaudily  printed  spreads  for  these  beds,  and  sometimes  you 
will  be  much  surprised  to  see  a  white  counterpane  and  fluted  pillow- 
shams  spread  over  an  Aleutian  couch.  Those  beds  are  always 
raised  well  up  from  the  floor,  and  sometimes  a  curtain  is  specially 
hung  around  them — a  borrowed  Russian  idea,  unquestionably.  A 
rude  table,  two  or  three  empty  cracker-boxes  from  the  trader's 
store  for  chairs,  and  a  rough  bench  or  two,  is  about  all  the  furni- 
ture ever  seen  in  a  barrabkie.  The  table-ware  and  household  utensils 
do  not  require  a  large  cupboard  for  their  reception.  Cups  and 
saucers  of  white  crockery,  highly  decorated  in  flaring  blue  and  red 
floral  designs,  plates  to  match,  a  few  pewter  teaspoons,  will  usually 
be  found  in  sufficient  quantity  for  the  daily  use  of  the  family  ;  and 
these  are  loaned  out  to  a  neighbor  also,  on  occasions  of  festivity, 
when  an  entire  circle  of  chosen  friends  join  under  the  roof  of  some 
one  barrabora  in  tea-drinking  and  "  praznik  "  feasting. 

The  traders  say  that  recently  a  great  desire  has  come  upon  the 
natives  to  possess  granite  ware  cooking  utensils  and  drinking  cups, 
or  those  porcelain  or  silicon-plated  iron  vessels  which  we  designate 
by  that  name  ;  they  do  not  require  washing,  and  can  be  easily  wiped 
out  and  never  rust.  Tin-ware  is  at  a  great  discount  among  them — 
it  rusts.  The  odor  of  coal-oil  will  be  noticed  among  many  others 
in  the  barraboras  of  the  Aleutians  and  Kadiaks  in  these  days,  for 
the  general  use  of  this  fluid  has  been  established.  The  glass  lamps 
and  the  smell  suggestive  of  that  illuminant  can  be  plainly  detected 
by  any  stranger  who  goes  into  a  village  up  there  now,  in  spite  of  the 
fishy  and  other  indigenous  strong  aromas,  which  are  in  themselves 
equally  odious  and  penetrating.  However,  an  old  Aleutian  fogy 
will  occasionally  insist  upon  using  a  primitive  stone  lamp,  with 
a  wicking  of  moss  or  strips  of  cotton  cloth. 

A  marked  fondness  for  pictures,  old  engravings,  chromos,  in 


168  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

fact  anything  that  goes  in  the  line  of  caricature  or  illustration,  is 
manifested  by  the  Aleutes.  They  paste  all  sorts  of  scraps  from 
newspapers,  magazines,  and  theatrical  posters,  which  the  traders 
give  them,  upon  the  walls  of  the  barrabora.  The  Russians  early 
took  notice  of  this  trait,  and  the  priests  of  the  Greek  Church  made 
good  use  of  it  by  distributing  richly-colored  and  gilded  portraits 
of  holy  men  and  women,  the  Imperial  family,  and  mythological 
church  groups. 

As  the  Aleut,  his  wife  and  children,  and  a  relative  or  two,  per- 
haps, are  living  in  the  barrabora,  he  enjoys  a  warm  and  comfort- 
able shelter  as  long  as  he  keeps  it  in  good  repair.  He  does  not  place 
what  he  has  of  surplus  supply  in  a  cellar — such  fish,  fowl,  or  meat 
as  he  may  have  in  excess  of  immediate  consumption  is  hung  up  out- 
side of  his  door  on  a  wooden  frame,  or  "  laabaas."  Here  it  is  be- 
yond the  reach  of  dogs,  and  is  quite  secure,  inasmuch  as  he  lives  in 
no  danger  or  dread  of  theft  from  the  hands  of  his  neighbors. 

He  is  a  fish-eater,  like  a  vast  majority  of  the  rest  of  native  Alas- 
kans. He  has  cod,  halibut,  salmon,  trout,  and  herrings  in  over- 
flowing abundance,  and  all  swim  close  to  his  door.  He  hooks  and 
nets  his  piscine  food-supply  all  the  year  round  as  it  rotates  with 
the  seasons.  He  varies  this  steady  diet  with  all  the  tea,  sugar,  and 
hard  bread,  or  flour,  that  he  can  purchase  from  the  trader's  store  ; 
some  other  little  articles  in  the  grocery  line,  such  as  canned  Cali- 
fornia fruits,  are  especially  agreeable  to  his  palate.  These  natives 
call  on  the  trader  for  biscuits,  or  sea-crackers,  not  because  they 
like  this  hard  bread  best,  but  on  account  of  the  scarcity  of  fuel 
wherewith  to  properly  bake  up  flour. 

While  fish  is  the  staff  of  Aleutian  daily  life,  yet  nature  has 
vouchsafed  many  simple  luxuries  to  those  people  :  these  are  sea- 
urchins,  or  echinoderms,  and  the  eggs  and  flesh  of  the  several  spe- 
cies of  water-fowl  peculiar  to  and  abundant  in  such  latitudes. 
Then,  in  August  and  September,  the  valleys,  hillsides,  and  margins 
of  the  sea  are  resorted  to  by  the  natives  for  the  huckleberries,  the 
"  moroshkies,"  the  crowberries,  and  giant  umbelliferous  stalks  of 
the  Archangelica,  found  ripe  and  ripening  there.  The  Aleutian 
huckleberries  are  much  better  than  those  of  the  Sitkan  district,  and 
are  really  the  only  good  indigenous  fruit,  according  to  the  evidence 
of  our  palates. 

Another  peculiarity  of  an  Aleutian  village,  which  strikes  a 
stranger's  eye,  is  the  irregular  but  frequent  coming  and  going  of 


THE   GREAT  ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  169 

a  number  of  old  women,  and  younger  ones,  to  and  from  the  moun- 
tains ;  they  always  return  with  a  burden  of  what  appears  to  be 
coarse  grass  upon  their  backs,  in  such  huge  bundles  that  the  bear- 
ers are  quite  hidden  from  view.  These  females,  while  not  literally 
hewers  of  wood,  are  really  working  as  hard.  They  are  gathering 
the  only  natural  resource  which  is  afforded  them  for  fuel  When 
long  and  tedious  journeys  along  the  coast  fail  to  reward  a  search 
for  drift-logs,  which  are  found  here  and  there  in  scant  number  at 
the  best,  then  the  women  repair  to  those  spots  on  the  mountain 
sides  where  the  slender  strawberry-like  runners  of  the  crowberry* 
have  grown  and  intergrown  into  thick  masses.  These  they  pull 
from  the  earth,  as  we  would  gather  dried  grasses.  A  large  bundle 
is  made  for  each  woman  in  the  party,  and  then,  assisting  each  other 
to  load  up,  they  stagger  down  the  hillside  trails,  under  these  heavy 
burdens,  back  to  their  respective  barraboras.  This  "  sheeksa "  is 
then  air-dried,  or  weathered  several  weeks,  so  as  to  get  it 
ready  and  fit  for  use  in  those  odd  Russian  ovens  or  "  peechka " 
stoves.  It  is  twisted  into  short  wisps,  two  or  three  of  which  at  one 
time  are  ignited,  and  thrust  as  they  blaze,  into  the  oven  ;  then  the 
door  of  the  peechka  is  closed  tightly  and  promptly.  This  makes  a 
hot  fire  for  a  few  moments ;  every  particle  of  the  heat  is  absorbed 
"by  the  thick,  brick  walls  of  the  oven,  so  that,  as  it  radiates  slowly, 
the  small  apartment  within  the  earthen  walls  of  the  barrabora  is 
kept  at  a  tropical  temperature,  for  several  hours  at  a  time,  without 
a  renewal  of  this  fire.  To-day,  however,  at  Oonalashka,  and  at  three 
or  four  other  central  sea-otter  villages,  the  natives  are  buying  cord- 
wood  and  coal  from  the  traders.  The  wood  is  brought  from 
Kadiak,  while  the  coal  comes  up  as  ballast  from  San  Francisco  in 
the  traders'  vessels. 

Housed  and  fed  in  this  manner,  the  entire  Aleutian  population 
have  been,  and  are  living  ;  as  their  children  grow  up  and  inherit 
the  parental  homes,  or  branch  out,  after  marrying,  to  erect  barra- 
boras of  their  own,  they  repeat  the  same  methods  of  their  ancestry. 
In  a  normal  condition  the  Aleut  is  a  quiet,  peaceful  parent,  affec- 
tionate but  yet  not  demonstrative ;  he  is  kind  to  his  wife  and 
imposes  no  real  burden  upon  her  which  he  does  not  fully  share 


*  Empetrum  nigrum.  The  fruit  is  a  small  black  berry  very  much  like 
that  borne  upon  those  hedges  of  an  English  privet,  which  grows  in  our  garden 
here  at  home. 


170  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

himself.  The  children  grow  up  without  harsh  discipline  ;  still  they 
are  not  the  recipients  of  marked  attention.  The  family  life,  when 
the  head  or  the  hunter  is  at  home,  is  one  of  very  simple  routine  ; 
he  is  in  bed  most  of  the  time,  striving  to  balance  that  account  of 
the  very  many  sleepless  nights  he  has  passed  in  his  bidarka  scour- 
ing sea-otter  reefs  during  his  recent  three  months'  trip,  to  Saanak  or 
the  Chernaboors.  The  others  rise  at  broad  day-light,  light  their 
blubber-fire  in  the  outside  kitchen,  and  prepare  a  slight  breakfast 
of  crackers,  tea,  and  boiled  fresh  fish.  This  meal  is  carried  into  the 
living-room,  where  the  "peechka"  has  been  started  up,  so  as  to 
thoroughly  warm  that  apartment.  If  this  native  is  the  possessor  of 
a  little  iron  stove,  of  our  own  make,  then  all  heating  and  cooking 
is  done  on  the  one  fire  made  in  it  and  the  smoke  of  that  burning  fat 
and  oil  with  which  so  much  of  their  fuel  of  drift-wood  and  sheeksa 
is  mixed,  goes  up  the  pipe  and  leaves  no  annoying  trace  behind. 
Between  the  members  of  the  household  there  is  never  much  conver- 
sation— the  topics  are  few,  indeed,  beyond  the  ordinary  routine  of 
irregular  meals,  and  the  desultory  rising  and  retiring  of  a  family. 
This  monotony  of  their  lives  is  very  much  enlivened  by  exercises 
of  the  church,  to  which  they  are  constantly  going  and  coming  from. 
But  when  they  meet  in  a  neighboring  barrabkie,  or  receive  friends 
in  their  own,  then  tongues  are  loosened,  and  conversation  flows 
freely,  especially  over  cups  of  tea  between  the  old  men  and  women  ; 
the  latter  are  incessant  talkers  under  such  genial  encouragement. 

Although  the  Aleut  does  not  give  you,  at  first,  the  least  idea 
that  he  has  ever  had  any  severe  training  of  a  heroic  order,  yet  it  is 
a  fact  that  most  of  the  young  men,  ere  they  become  recognized 
hunters,  had  to  "win  their  spurs,"  as  it  were.  The  old  men  always 
impress  upon  the  native  youth  that  great  importance  of  strictly  ob- 
serving the  customs  of  their  forefathers  in  conducting  the  chase,  and 
that  neglect  in  this  respect  will  surely  bring  upon  them  disaster 
and  punishment ;  therefore  the  young  men  are  encouraged  to  go  to 
sea  in  gales  of  wind,  and  make  difficult  landings  with  their  bidarkas 
at  surf-washed  places.  Before  the  advent  of  Russian  priests, 
every  village  had  one  or  two  old  men  at  least,  who  considered  it 
their  especial  business  to  educate  the  children ;  thereupon,  in  the 
morning  or  the  evening  when  all  were  at  home,  these  aged  teachers 
would  seat  themselves  in  the  centre  of  one  of  the  largest  village 
yourts  or  "oolagamuh:"  the  young  folks  surrounded  them,  and 
listened  attentively  to  what  they  said — sometimes  failing  memory 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  171 

would  cause  the  old  preceptors  to  repeat  over  and  over  again  the 
same  advice  or  legend  in  the  course  of  a  lecture.  The  respect  of 
the  children,  however,  never  allowed  or  occasioned  an  interruption 
of  such  a  senile  oration. 

But  to-day  their  education,  in  so  far  as  the  strict  sense  of  the 
term  goes,  is  received  from  the  priests  and  deacons  of  the  Greek 
Church.  They  seem  to  have  abandoned  all  the  shamanism,  the 
mummery  and  savagery  of  their  primitive  lives  eagerly  and  willing- 
ly for  those  practices  and  precepts  of  the  Christian  faith ;  in  this 
strange  accord  the  Kadiakers  also  joined.  No  recourse  to  violent 
measures  was  ever  resorted  to  by  the  Russian  missionaries,  who 
were  always  met  more  than  half-way  by  these  singular  heathen. 
An  Aleut  is  the  better  Christian  when  fairly  compared  with  the 
Kaniag — the  latter  is  not  half  as  sincere  or  faithful. 

Stepan  Glottov,  in  1759,  wintered,  first  of  all  white  men,  at 
Oomnak  Island,  and  he  lived  there  then  in  perfect  peace  and  quiet 
with  the  natives ;  so  amicable  were  his  relations  with  these  people, 
that  he  persuaded  their  chief  to  be  baptized,  and  to  allow  a  little 
son  to  go  with  Glottov  to  Kamchatka,  where  the  youth  lived 
several  years,  then  returned,  well  versed  in  the  Russian  language, 
and  assumed  the  title  of  supreme  chief  of  the  Aleutians  ;  this  is  the 
earliest  record  made  of  the  conversion  of  these  people.  In  1795  the 
first  priest  or  missionary  came  among  them  ;  and  never,  from  that 
time  to  the  present  moment,  has  a  representative  of  that  church 
ever  been  treated  otherwise  than  well  by  these  islanders. 

The  Aleutian  brain  has  streaks  of  genuine  philosophy  and  a 
keen  sense  of  humor.  A  priest  once  reproached  an  aged  sire  for 
allowing  a  worthless  son  to  worry  and  vex  the  household.  "Why, 
Ivan,"  said  he,  "  do  you,  who  are  so  good,  and  Natalie,  your  wife, 
also  most  excellent,  permit  this  rude  child  to  so  deport  himself  ?  " 
"Ah,  father,"  replied  the  old  man  with  great  emotion,  "not  out  of 
every  sweet  root  grows  a  sweet  plant ! " 

This  inherent  religious  disposition  of  the  Aleut  is  the  reason 
why  we  find  a  Greek  church  or  a  chapel  in  every  little  hamlet 
where  his  people  live.  The  exclusion  of  all  other  sects,  however, 
is  natural,  since  the  character  of  the  ornate  service  and  frequent 
"  prazniks,"  or  festivals  of  that  chosen  denomination,  suits  him  best. 
The  Greek  Catholic  Bishop  of  the  Alaskan  diocese  now  resides  in 
Oonalashka.  He  used  to  make  Sitka  his  headquarters,  but  the  de- 
population of  the  whites  there  after  the  transfer  of  the  country 


172  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

made  that  spot  too  lonely  for  him,  and  he  soon  removed  to  San 
Francisco.  A  few  years  ago  a  final  transfer  was  made  to  Illoo- 
look.  As  far  as  possible  the  natives  support  their  own  respective 
chapels,  erect  the  church  structures,  keep  them  in  repair,  and  make 
an  annual  contribution  sufficient  to  support  a  reader,  or  "  deacon," 
so  that  the  order  of  daily  services  shall  be  constantly  in  operation. 
When  a  community  is  too  poor,  however,  to  do  this,  then  the 
bishop  has  money  supplied  to  him  by  the  Russian  Home  Church 
Fund,  which  he  uses  to  maintain  the  proper  conduct  of  those  chap- 
els situated  at  impecunious  settlements.  Of  course  these  outlying 
and  far-distant  hamlets  of  the  Aleutian  archipelago  are  unable  to 
secure  and  pay,  each  one,  for  the  services  of  a  regularly  ordained 
resident  priest.  Therefore  a  parish  priest,  either  from  Oonalashka, 
Belcovsky,  Sitka,  or  even  San  Francisco,  is  in  the  habit  of  making 
a  tour  of  the  entire  Alaskan  circuit  once  in  every  year  or  two,  so 
as  to  administer  the  higher  offices  of  the  church,  such  as  baptism, 
marriage,  etc. 

Most  amusing  is  that  intense  outward  piety  of  these  grimy  peo- 
ple— they  greet  you  with  a  blessing  and  a  prayer  for  your  good 
health  in  the  same  breath,  and  they  part  from  you  murmuring  a 
benediction.  They  never  sit  down  to  their  rude  meals  without 
asking  the  blessing  of  God  ;  never  enter  a  neighbor's  house  with- 
out crossing  themselves  at  the  threshold  ;  and  in  most  of  the  bar- 
raboras  a  little  image-picture  of  a  patron  saint  will  be  found  in  one 
corner,  high  up  on  a  shelf,  to  which  the  face  of  every  member  of 
the  family  is  always  turned  when  they  rise  and  retire — the  head 
bowed  and  the  cross  sign  made  before  this  "  eikon,"  in  humility 
and  silence.  These  people  also  carry  the  precepts  and  phraseology 
of  the  church  upon  their  lips,  constantly  repeating  them  during 
holy  weeks  and  pious  festivals. 

The  fact  that  among  all  the  savage  races  found  on  the  northwest 
coast  by  Christian  pioneers  and  teachers,  the  Aleutians  are  the  only 
practical  converts  to  Christianity,  goes  far,  in  my  opinion,  to  set 
them  apart  as  very  differently  constituted  in  mind  and  disposition 
from  our  Indians  and  our  Eskimo  of  Alaska.  To  the  latter,  how- 
ever, they  seem  to  be  intimately  allied,  though  they  do  not  mingle 
in  the  slightest  degree.  They  adopted  the  Christian  faith  with 
very  little  opposition,  readily  exchanging  their  barbarous  customs 
and  wild  superstitions  for  the  rites  of  the  Greek  Catholic  Church 
and  its  more  refined  myths  and  legends. 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN    CHAIN.  173 

At  the  time  of  their  first  discovery,  they  were  living  as  savages 
in  every  sense  of  the  word,  bold  and  hardy,  throughout  the  Aleu- 
tian chain,  but  now  they  respond,  on  these  islands,  to  all  outward 
signs  of  Christianity,  as  sincerely  as  our  own  church-going  people. 
The  question  as  to  the  derivation  of  those  natives  is  still  a  mooted 
one  among  ethnologists,  for  in  all  points  of  personal  bearing,  intel- 
ligence, character,  as  well  as  physical  structure,  they  seem  to  form 
a  perfect  link  of  gradation  between  the  Japanese  and  Eskimo,  not- 
withstanding their  traditions  and  their  language  are  entirely  distinct 
and  peculiar  to  themselves ;  not  one  word  or  numeral  of  their 
nomenclature  resembles  the  dialect  of  either.  They  claim,  how- 
ever, to  have  come  first  to  the  Aleutian  Islands  from  a  "  big  land 
in  the  westward,"  and  that  when  they  came  there  first  they  found 
the  land  uninhabited,  and  that  they  did  not  meet  with  any  people, 
until  their  ancestors  had  pushed  on  to  the  eastward  as  far  as  the 
peninsula  and  Kadiak.  Confirmatory  of  this  legend,  or  rather 
highly  suggestive  of  it,  is  the  fact  that  repeated  instances  have 
occurred  within  our  day  where  Japanese  junks  have  been,  in  the 
stress  of  hurricanes  and  typhoons,  dismantled,  and  have  drifted 
clear  over  and  on  to  the  reefs  and  coasts  of  the  Aleutian  Islands. 
Only  a  short  time  ago,  in  the  summer  of  1871,  such  a  craft  was  so 
stranded,  helpless  and  at  the  mercy  of  the  sea,  upon  the  rocky 
coast  of  Adak  Island,  in  this  chain  ;  the  few  surviving  sailors, 
Japanese,  five  in  number,  were  rescued  by  a  party  of  Aleutian  sea- 
otter  hunters,  who  took  care  of  them  until  the  vessel  of  a  trader 
earned  them  back,  by  way  of  Oonalashka,  to  San  Francisco,  and 
thence  they  returned  to  their  native  land. 

A  number  of  the  males  in  every  Aleutian  village  will  be  found 
who  can  read  and  write  with  the  Russian  alphabet.  This  education 
they  get  in  the  line  of  church  exercises,  inasmuch  as  they  are  all 
conducted  in  the  Russian  language,  though  the  responses  for  the 
congregation  usually  are  made  by  Aleutian  accents.  An  Aleut 
grammar  and  phonetic  alphabet,  adapted  to  the  expression  of  the 
Russian  language,  is  used  in  all  of  these  hamlets.  It  was  prepared 
by  that  remarkable  man,  Veniaminov,  in  1831 :  a  large  number  of 
the  books  were  printed,  and  they  have  been  in  use  ever  since.  The 
young  men  and  boys  are  taught  as  they  grow  up,  by  the  church 
deacon  usually,  to  read,  first  in  the  Aleut  dialect,  then  in  the  Rus- 
sian. The  traders  take  advantage  of  this  understanding  among 
these  people,  and  facilitate  their  bartering  very  materially.  They 


174  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

give  every  hunter  a  pass,  or  grocer's  book,  in  which  he  keeps  a  reg« 
ular  account,  charging  what  he  may  need,  in  advance  of  payment, 
so  enabling  his  family  to  get  what  it  requires  during  his  long  ab- 
sence on  the  hunting-grounds.  In  short,  that  book  is  a  regular 
letter  of  credit  at  the  store,  and  the  traders  have  found  it  the  best 
way  of  influencing  the  natives  in  their  favor,  and  also  of  aiding  the 
superior  hunters. 

This  method  of  credit  has  developed,  and  made  manifest  the 
truth  of  a  strong  statement  in  which  Veniaminov  declared  his 
belief  that  these  people  were  really  honest  at  heart,  totally  unlike 
all  other  savages  in  Alaska,  or  elsewhere  on  the  American  continent, 
for  that  matter.  Many  of  the  hunters,  when  they  are  about  to  de- 
part for  a  long  four  or  five  months'  sea-otter  chase,  and  consequent 
absence  for  such  length  of  time  from  home,  go  to  the  trader  and 
tell  him  to  restrict  their  wives  from  overdrawing  a  certain  pecuniary 
limit,  which  they  fix  of  their  own  idea  as  to  what  they  can  afford. 
This  action,  however,  is  the  purpose  of  true  honesty  only,  for  those 
same  hunters,  when  they  get  back,  after  first  religiously  settling 
every  indebtedness  in  full,  make  at  once  a  heavy  draft  upon  any 
surplus  that  they  may  have,  going  so  far  in  the  line  of  extravagance 
and  singular  improvidence,  in  some  instances,  as  to  purchase,  on 
the  spur  of  the  moment,  music-boxes  worth  two  hundred  dollars 
each,  or  whole  bolts  of  silk  and  costly  packages  of  handkerchiefs, 
neckties,  and  white  linen,  and  many  other  things  of  a  like  nature, 
wholly  unwarranted  by  the  means  of  the  hunter,  or  of  any  real 
service  to  him  or  his  family. 

The  church  "  prazniks,"  or  festivals,  are  very  quiet  affairs,  but 
when  the  Aleut  determines  to  celebrate  his  birthday  or  "  eman 
nimik,"  he  goes  about  it  in  full  resolution  to  have  a  stirring  and 
vociferous  time.  Therefore  he  brews  a  potential  beer  by  putting  a 
quantity  of  sugar,  flour,  rice,  and  dried  apples  (if  he  can  get  the 
latter)  into  a  ten  or  twenty-gallon  barrel,  which  is  filled  with  water. 
He  sends  invitations  out  to  his  friends  so  dated  as  to  bring  them  to 
the  barrabkie  when  a  right  degree  of  fermentation  in  the  kvass- 
barrel  shall  have  arrived  ;  sometimes  the  odor  of  that  barrel  itself  is 
sufficient  to  gather  them  in  all  on  time.  Some  one  of  the  natives 
who  is  famous  for  natural  and  cultivated  skill  in  playing  the  accor- 
dion or  concertina,  is  given  the  post  of  honor  and  the  best  of  the 
beer  ;  he  or  she,  as  the  case  may  be,  soon  starts  the  most  hilarious 
dancing,  because  Aleutes  are  exceedingly  fond  of  this  amuse- 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  175 

ment,  especially  so  when  stimulated  by  beer.  If  the  apartment  is 
large  enough,  the  figures  of  an  old  Russian  quadrille  are  gone 
through  with,  accompanied  by  indescribable  grimaces  and  gro- 
tesque side-shuffles  of  the  dancers,  the  old  women  and  young 
men  being  the  most  demonstrative.  Usually,  however,  a  single 
waltzing  couple  has  the  floor  at  one  time,  whirling  around  with  the 
liveliest  hop-waltz  steps,  and  as  it  settles  down  out  of  breath,  a 
fresh  pair  springs  up  from  the  waiting  and  watching  circle.  The 
guests  rapidly  pass  from  their  normal  sedateness  into  the  varying 
stages  that  rotate  between  slight  and  intense  drunkenness. 

These  kvass  orgies,  on  such  occasions,  are  the  only  exhibitions 
of  disorder  that  the  people  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  and  Kadiak  ever 
afford.  At  Belcovsky,  and  at  every  point  where  the  sea-otter  in- 
dustry is  most  remunerative  to  the  native  hunter,  there  you  will 
find  the  greatest  misery,  due  wholly  to  those  beery  birthday  cele- 
brations as  sketched  above. 

Some  traders  often  give  entertainments  to  the  natives,  in  which 
they  wisely  offer  plenty  of  strong  tea,  with  white  sugar-lumps,  and 
nothing  else  ;  these  parties  are  quite  reputable  and  highly  en- 
joyed by  all  concerned.  The  floor  of  the  warehouse,  or  the  living- 
rooms  of  the  trader  himself,  are  cleared,  and  this  allows  ample 
space  for  a  full-figured  cotillon  or  quadrille,  or  a  dozen  or  two  of 
dancing  couples.  The  ball-room  of  the  chief  trading-firm  at 
Oonalashka  is  a  very  animated  and  extensive  prospect  when  an 
evening-party  of  this  sort  is  in  fine  motion.  The  familiar  strains  of 
"  Pinafore,"  the  "  Lancers,"  "  John  Brown,"  and  "  Marching  through 
Georgia,"  rise  in  piercing  strength  from  the  vigorous  men  and 
women  who  are  squeezing  the  accordions,  and  every  now  and  then 
a  few  of  the  young  Aleutes  break  out  into  a  short  singing  refrain, 
using  English  words  to  suit  the  music,  as  they  caper  in  the 
high-tide  of  this  festivity.  It  is  the  young  men,  however,  only, 
who  thus  vocalize  ;  the  women,  when  sober,  old  and  young, 
are  always  silent,  with  downcast  eyes,  and  are  very  abject  in  de- 
meanor. 

The  great  feminine  solace  in  a  well-to-do  native  hut  is  recourse 
to  a  concertina  or  accordion,  as  the  case  may  be.  These  instru- 
ments are  especially  adapted  to  the  people.  Their  plaintive,  slow 
measure,  when  fingered  in  response  to  native  tunes  and  old 
Slavonian  ballads,  always  rise  upon  the  air  in  every  Aleutian 
hamlet,  from  early  morning  until  far  into  night.  An  appreciation 


176  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

of  good  music  is  keen  :  many  of  the  women  can  easily  pick  up 
strains  from  our  own  operas,  and  repeat  them  correctly  after  listen- 
ing a  short  while  to  the  trader  or  his  wife  play  and  sing.  They 
are  most  pleased  with  sad,  wailing  tunes,  such  as  "Lorena,"  the 
"  Old  Cabin  Home,"  and  the  like. 

Thus  we  note  those  salient  characteristics  of  Aleutians,  who 
are  the  most  interesting  and  praiseworthy  inhabitants  of  Alaska. 
There  are  not  a  great  many  of  them,  however,  when  contrasted 
numerically  with  the  Indians  and  the  Eskimo  of  this  region  ;  but 
they  come  closer,  far  nearer  to  us  in  good  fellowship  and  human 
sympathy.  We  turn,  therefore,  from  them  again  to  resume  our 
contemplation  of  the  country  in  which  they  live.  The  sun  is  burn- 
ing through  a  gray-blue  bank  of  sea-swept  fog,  ever  and  anon 
shining  down  brilliantly  upon  the  beautiful,  vividly  green  moun- 
tains, and  glancing  from  the  clear  waters  of  Oonalashka's  harbor. 
It  tempts  us  to  walk,  to  stroll,  when  the  trader  tells  us  that  we  can 
easily  cross  over  to  Beaver  Bay,  where  Captain  Cook  anchored  and 
refitted  in  1778.  So  we  go,  and  a  patient,  good-humored  native 
trots  ahead  to  keep  us  on  the  road  and  bring  us  back  safely,  lest 
the  fog  descend  and  shut  all  in  darkness  which  is  now  so  light  and 
bright.  A  narrow  foot-trail  that  is  deeply  worn  by  the  pigeon-toed 
Aleutes  into  moss  and  sphagnum,  or  fairly  choked  by  rank- 
growing  grasses  and  annuals  in  low  warm  spots,  winds  around  and 
over  the  divide  between  Oonalashka  village  and  Borka.  As  we  reach 
the  rippling,  rocky  strand  of  Beaver  Bay,  a  cascade  arrests  our  at- 
tention on  account  of  its  exceeding  beauty.  Tumbling  down  from 
the  brow  of  a  lofty  bluff  of  brown  and  reddish  rocks,  a  rivulet  falls 
in  a  line  of  snowy  spray,  which  reflects  prismatic  colors  from  the 
rocks  and  sunlight  as  it  drops  into  the  cold  embrace  of  the  sea. 
While  we,  resting  on  the  grassy  margin  of  the  beach,  enjoy  this 
charming  picture,  our  native  turns  his  face  to  the  bay,  and  he 
points  out  to  us  the  pebbly  shore  where  Captain  Cook  "hove 
down  "  his  vessel,  more  than  a  century  ago,  and  then  scraped  those 
barnacles  and  sea-weed  growths  from  that  ship's  bottom.  Here  the 
English  discoverer  first  came  in  contact  with  the  natives  of  Oona- 
lashka, and  there  are  people  over  on  Spirkin  or  "  Borka  "  Island, 
just  across  the  bay  from  us,  who  will  recite  the  legend  of  this  early 
visit  of  that  Englishman  with  great  earnestness,  circumspec- 
tion, and  detail,  so  faithfully  has  the  story  been  transmitted  from 
father  to  son.  Their  own  name  of  Samahgaanooda  was  changed 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  177 

voluntarily  to  English  Bay,  or  "Anglieeski  Bookhta,"  by  which 
designation  they  themselves  call  the  harbor  to-day. 

A  broad  expanse  of  this  bay  lies  directly  between  us  on  the 
north  side  and  the  village  of  Borka,  which  is  perched  on  a  narrow 
beach-level  shelf  of  an  island  that  rises  bold  and  abruptly,  high 
from  the  sea.  This  hamlet  is  the  most  remarkable  native  settle- 
ment in  all  Alaska  with  respect  to  a  strange  and  unwonted  cleanli- 
ness which  is  exhibited  in  this  community  of  one  hundred  and  forty 
Aleutes,  who  are  living  here  to-day  in  twenty-eight  frame  houses,  bar- 
raboras,  and  a  chapel.  What  makes  it  still  more  remarkable  is  the 
fact  that  these  people  are  in  close  communication  with  their  kindred 
of  Oonalashka,  who  are  distant  only  a  few  hours'  journey  by  canoe 
and  portage,  and  who  are  not  especially  cleanly  to  the  slightest  note- 
worthy degree.  Those  people  of  Borka  are  living  in  the  cleanest 
and  neatest  of  domiciles.  They  are  living  so  without  an  exceptional 
instance,  every  hut  being  as  tidy  and  as  orderly  as  its  neighbor. 
They  have  large  windows  in  the  small  frame  houses  and  barraboras, 
scrub  and  sand  the  floors,  and  keep  their  simple  furniture,  their  beds, 
and  window-panes  polished  and  bright.  Glass  tumblers,  earthen 
pots,  and  wooden  firkins  filled  with  transplanted  wild-flowers 
stand  on  the  tables  and  deep  window-sills  to  bloom  fresh  and  sweet 
all  the  year  round.  A  modest,  unassuming  old  Russian  Creole 
trader,  who  has  lived  there  all  his  life,  and  who  was  living  recently, 
is  credited  with  this  influence  for  the  better  with  the  natives.  Cer- 
tainly he  is  the  only  one  who  has  ever  succeeded  in  working  such  a 
revolution  in  the  slovenly,  untidy  household  habits  of  these  amia- 
ble but  shiftless  people. 

As  we  retrace  our  steps  to  Oonalashka  village  we  become  fully  im- 
pressed with  the  size  of  this  island.  It  bears  so  many  mountain  spurs, 
with  a  singularly  rugged,  cut-up  coast,  in  which  the  deep  indentations 
or  gulf-fiords  nearly  sever  the  island  in  twain  as  they  run  in  to  al- 
most meet  from  the  north  and  south  sides.  Beautiful  mats  of  wild 
poppies  are  nodding  their  yellow  heads  as  the  gusts  sweep  over  them 
on  the  hillsides,  and  a  rank,  rich  growth  of  tall  grasses  by  the  creek- 
margins  and  the  sea-shore  in  sheltered  places  shimmers  and  sways 
like  so  many  fields  of  uncut  green  grain  do  at  home.  Vegetation 
everywhere,  except  on  the  summits  of  the  highest  peaks  and  ridges 
and  the  mural  faces  of  the  bluffs  !  Even  there  some  tiny  lichens 
grow,  however,  and  give  rich  tones  of  golden  ochre  and  purplish- 
bronzed  reflections  from  the  cold,  moist  rocks,  whereto  they  cling. 
12 


178  CUE  AKCTIC   PROVINCE. 

We  pause  in  that  little  cemetery,  just  outside  of  the  village  of 
Hloolook.  It  is  on  a  small  knoll,  under  higher  hills  that  rear 
themselves  over  it.  Its  disorder  and  neglect  is  a  fair  reminder  of 
what  we  see  in  most  of  our  own  rural  graveyards.  The  practice  of 
all  these  natives  is  to  inter  by  digging  a  shallow  grave.  The  body 
is  prepared  in  its  best  clothes,  and  coffined  in  a  plain  wooden  box. 
A  small  mound  and  a  larger  or  smaller  wooden  Greek  cross  is  the 
only  monument.  Tiny  oil-portraits  of  their  patron  saints,  painted 
on  tin  or  sheet-iron,  especially  made  for  these  purposes,  and  fur- 
nished by  the  Church,  are  tacked  to  the  crosses,  with  now  and  then 
a  rude  Russian  inscription  carved  or  painted  thereon  in  addition. 
During  certain  periods  of  the  summer,  when  the  weather  is  pleas- 
ant, little  squads  of  relatives  will  come  out  here  from  the  village 
and  pass  a  whole  day  in  tea-drinking  and  renovating  the  crosses, 
sitting  on  the  mounds  as  they  chat,  work,  and  boil  their  samovar. 
The  nioolook  church-bells  ring — they  arouse  us  to  resume  the  walk 
thus  interrupted  in  this  small  city  of  Aleutian  dead.  As  we  enter 
the  town,  we  see  the  occupants  of  turfy  barraboras  and  frame 
cottages  hastening  from  every  quarter  and  trooping  to  the  door 
of  a  yellow-walled  and  red-roofed  house  of  worship.  Perched 
on  that  three-barred  cross  which  crowns  the  cupola  of  this  chapel 
are  half  a  dozen  big  black  ravens,  all  croaking  most  lugubriously, 
as  the  clanging  chimes  peal  out  below  them.  That  is  their  favorite 
roosting-place.  The  natives  take  no  notice  of  those  ill-omened  birds, 
which  as  feathered  scavengers,  hop  around  the  barraboras  in  perfect 
security,  since  no  one  ever  disturbs  them,  unless  it  be  some  grace- 
less trader  who  is  anxious  to  test  the  killing  power  of  a  new  shot- 
gun. They  breed  in  high  chinks  of  the  bluffs,  and  find  abundant 
food  cast  upon  the  beaches  by  the  sea.  A  few  domestic  fowls,  some 
with  broods  of  newly-hatched  chicks,  are  running  about  or  scratch- 
ing around  the  place.  The  priest's  shaggy  little  bull  and  cow 
stand  in  front  of  a  small  stable  or  "scoatnik,"  lazily  chewing  their 
cud.  There  is  no  other  live-stock  in  the  hamlet,  except  a  few  dogs 
and  cats;  not  a  great  many  of  the  latter,  however. 

West  of  this  Island  of  Oonalashka  is  a  narrow-lined  stretch  of 
more  than  eight  hundred  miles  of  rapidly-succeeding  islets  and 
islands,  until  the  extreme  limit  of  the  Alaskan  border  is  reached  at 
Attoo.  In  all  this  dreary  wilderness  of  land  and  water  only  three 
small  human  settlements  are  to  be  found  to-day,  with  a  population 
of  less  than  five  hundred  natives  and  six  or  seven  white  men. 


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THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  179 

Attoo,  Atkha,  and  Oomnak  are  the  only  villages,  the  last  closely  ad- 
joins Oonalashka,  on  a  large  island  of  the  same  name. 

Attoo  is  the  extreme  western  town  which  is  or  can  be  located  on 
the  North  American  continent.  It  is  the  first  land  made  and  dis- 
covered by  the  Russians,  as  they  became  acquainted  with  the  Aleu- 
tian chain.  Michael  Novodiskov,  a  sailor  who  had  survived  Bering 
and  the  wreck  of  the  St.  Peter  in  1741,  took  command  of  a  small 
shallop  in  1745,  and  sailed  from  Lower  Kamchatka.  He  reached 
Attoo,  and  also  landed  on  its  sister  island  of  Aggatoo,  in  the  same 
season.  The  Aleutes  were  then  numerous,  bold,  and  richly  sup- 
plied with  sea-otter  skins.  Now,  nothing  but  the  ruined  sites  of 
once  populous  villages  remain  behind  to  attest  the  truth  of  that 
early  Russian  narrative  ;  and  the  descendants,  who  number  but  a 
little  more  than  one  hundred  souls,  are  living  in  a  small  hamlet 
that  nestles  in  the  shelter  of  that  beautiful  harbor  on  the  north  side 
of  Attoo  Island,  at  the  rear  of  which  abrupt  hills  and  high  moun- 
tains suddenly  rise.  A  sand-beach  before  the  village  is  fringed 
by  a  most  luxurious  growth  of  rank  grass,  that  wild  wheat  of  the 
north,  the  tasselled  seed-plumes  of  which  are  waving  as  high  as 
the  waists,  and  even  the  heads  of  the  natives  themselves. 

Sea-otters  have  been  virtually  exterminated  or  driven  from 
the  coast  here,  so  that  the  residents  of  Attoo  are,  in  worldly  goods, 
poor  indeed  ;  and  a  small  trader's  store  is  stationed  here,  more  for 
the  sake  of  charity  than  of  commercial  gain.  But  they  have  an 
abundance  of  sea-lion  meat,  of  eggs  and  water-fowl ;  a  profusion  of 
fish — cod,  halibut,  algae  mackerel,  and  a  few  salmon.  They  have  a 
liberal  supply  of  drift-wood  landed  by  currents  upon  the  shores  of 
this  and  the  contiguous  rugged  islets.  Several  times  during  the 
last  ten  years  have  traders  endeavored  to  coax  these  inhabitants 
to  abandon  Attoo  and  go  with  them  to  better  situations  for  sea- 
otter  hunting.  But,  although  pinched  by  poverty,  yet  so  strongly 
attached  are  they  to  this  lonely  island  of  their  birth,  that  they  have 
obstinately  declined.  Though  they  are  poor,  yet  the  contrast  be- 
tween their  cheerful,  healthy  faces  and  those  debauched  coun- 
tenances which  we  observed  at  the  wealthy  villages  of  Protassov 
and  Belcovsky  is  a  delightful  one,  and  preaches  an  eloquent  ser- 
mon in  its  own  reflection.  Naturally  the  people  of  Attoo  do  not 
enjoy  much  sugar,  tea,  cloth,  and  other  little  articles  which  they 
have  learned  to  covet  from  the  trader's  store  ;  so  we  find  them  liv- 
ing nearer  the  primitive  style  of  Aleutian  ancestry  than  elsewhere 


180  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

in  the  archipelago,  being  dressed  largely  in  tanned  seal  and  bird- 
skins,  of  the  fashion  made  and  worn  by  their  forefathers  who  wel- 
comed Novodiskov  long,  long  ago. 

The  necessity  of  doing  something  in  order  to  gain  from  the 
trader  a  few  of  the  simplest  articles,  such  as  the  natural  resources 
of  Attoo  utterly  failed  to  supply,  has  driven  the  natives  to  the  care 
and  conservation  of  blue  foxes,  which  they  introduced  here  many 
years  past,  and  of  which  they  secure,  in  traps,  two  or  three  hun- 
dred every  season.  The  common  red  fox  *  of  the  whole  Aleutian 
chain  became  extinct  here  in  prior  time ;  so,  taking  advantage  of 
this  fact,  those  blue  foxes,  so  abundant  and  so  valuable  on  the  Seal 
Islands,  were  imported,  and  have  ranged  without  deterioration, 
since  ice-floes  never  bridge  the  straits  that  isolate  this  island  from 
the  nearest  adjacent  land,  and  upon  which  the  common  breed  might 
cross  over  to  ruin  the  quality  of  the  fur  of  that  transported  Vulpes 
lagopus.  They  have  also  domesticated  the  wild  goose,  and  rear  flocks 
of  them  around  their  barraboras,  being  the  only  people  in  Alaska 
who  have  ever  done  so. 

It  hardly  seems  credible,  at  first  thought,  but  the  village  of 
Attoo  makes  San  Francisco  practically  the  half-way  town  as  we  go 
from  Calais,  Me.,  to  it,  our  westernmost  settlement!  It  is  really 
but  slightly  short  of  being  just  midway,  since  Attoo  stands  almost 
three  thousand  miles  west  of  the  Golden  Gate,  f  A  strict  geo- 
graphical centre  of  the  American  Union  is  that  point  at  sea  forty 
miles  off  the  Columbia  River  mouth,  on  the  coast  of  Oregon. 

The  nearest  neighbors  of  the  Attoo  villagers  are  not  of  their 
own  kith  and  kin — they  are  the  Atkhan  and  Kamchadale  Creoles 
and  natives  of  the  Russian  Seal  Islands,  some  two  hundred  miles 

*  The  only  fur-bearing  animal  found  in  every  section  of  Alaska  is  the  red 
fox  ( Vulpes  fulvus).  From  Point  Barrow  to  the  southern  boundary,  and  from 
the  British  line  to  the  Island  of  Attoo,  this  brute  is  omnipresent.  It  varies 
greatly  in  size  and  quality  of  fur,  from  the  handsome  specimens  of  Nooshagak 
down  to  the  diminutive  yellow-tinged  creatures  that  ramble  furtively  over  the 
Aleutian  Islands. 

f  "The  distance  in  statute  miles  between  San  Francisco  and  a  point  due 
south  of  Attoo,  measured  on  the  parallel  of  San  Francisco,  is  2,943.1  miles. 
The  distance  east  from  Attoo  of  a  point  due  north  of  San  Francisco,  measured 
on  the  parallel  of  Attoo,  is  2,214.5  miles.  The  amount  of  westing  made  in 
sailing  from  San  Francisco  to  Attoo,  on  a  great  circle,  is  very  nearly  2,582.5 
miles." — (Henry  Gannett,  Geographer  U.  S.  Geological  Survey:  letter  to 
author. ) 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  181 

west ;  but  on  our  side  they  are  separated  by  more  than  four  hun- 
dred and  thirty  miles  of  stormy  water  from  the  first  inhabited 
island,  which  is  Atkha,  where  a  much  larger  and  a  much  more  fort- 
unately situated  settlement  exists  on  its  east  coast,  at  Nazan  Bay. 
Here  is  a  community  of  over  two  hundred  and  thirty  souls,  being 
all  the  people  gathered  together  who  previously  lived  in  small  scat- 
tered hamlets  on  the  many  large  and  small  islands  between  Atkha 
and  Attoo.  They  secure  a  comparatively  good  number  of  sea- 
otters,  and  are  relatively  well-to-do,  being  able  to  excite  and  sus- 
tain much  activity  in  the  trader's  store. 

General  agreement  among  those  who  have  visited  the  Atkhans, 
as  traders  and  agents  of  the  Government,  is  that  these  natives  are 
the  finest  body  of  sea-otter  hunters  in  all  respects  known  to  the 
business.  They  make  long  journeys  from  their  homes,  carried  to 
the  outlying  islands  of  Semeisopochnoi,  Amchitka,  Tanaga,  Kanaga, 
Adahk  and  Nitalikh,  Siguam  and  Amookhta,  some  of  them  far  dis- 
tant, on  which  they  establish  camps  and  search  the  reefs  and  rocks 
awash,  as  they  learn  by  experience  where  the  chosen  haunts  of  the 
shy  sea-otter  are.  Here  they  remain  engaged  in  the  chase  over 
extended  periods  of  months  at  a  time,  when,  in  accord  with  a  pre- 
concerted date  arranged  with  the  traders,  those  schooners  which 
carried  them  out  from  Atkha,  return,  pick  them  up,  and  take  them 
back.  Then  the  trader's  store  is  made  a  grand  rendezvous  for  the 
village  ;  the  hunters  tally  their  skins,  settle  their  debts,  make  their 
donations  to  the  church,  and  then  promptly  invest  their  surplus  in 
every  imaginable  purchase  which  the  goods  displayed  will  warrant. 

The  women  of  Atkha  employ  long  intervals,  in  which  their 
husbands  and  sons  are  absent,  by  making  the  most  beautifully 
woven  grass  baskets  and  mats.  The  finest  samples  of  this  weaving 
ever  produced  by  a  savage  or  semi-civilized  people  are  those  which 
come  from  Atkha.  The  girls  and  women  gather  grasses  at  the 
proper  season,  and  prepare  them  with  exceeding  care  for  their 
primitive  methods  of  weaving ;  and  they  spare  no  amount  of  labor 
and  pains  in  the  execution  of  their  designs,  which  are  now  almost 
entirely  those  suggested  by  the  traders,  such  as  fancy  sewing- 
baskets,  cigar-holders,  table-mats,  and  special  forms  that  are  eagerly 
accepted  in  trade,  for  they  find  a  ready  sale  in  San  Francisco. 

A  peculiar  and  valuable  food-fish  is  found  in  the  Atkhan  waters 
which  has  been  attracting  a  great  deal  of  attention  as  a  substitute 
for  the  mackerel  of  our  east  coast,  inasmuch  as  there  is  no  such 


182  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

fish  found  on  the  Alaskan  coasts.  Among  the  sea-weed  that  floats 
in  immense  rafts  everywhere  throughout  the  Aleutian  passes,  the 
"  yellow-fish,"  or  "  Atkha  mackerel,"  *  is  very  abundant ;  it  is  also 
plentiful  off  the  Shoomagin  Islands.  It  is  a  good  substitute  for 
the  real  mackerel,  f  resembling  it  in  taste  after  salting,  as  well  as  in 
size  and  movements. 

During  early  days  of  Russian  order  and  control,  the  people  of 
Atkha  lived  altogether  on  the  north  side  of  the  island,  and  it  was 
then  the  grand  central  depot  of  the  old  Russian  American  Com- 
pany. A  chief  factor  was  in  charge,  who  had  exclusive  jurisdiction 
over  all  that  country  embraced  in  the  Kurile  archipelago,  and  the 
Commander  group  of  Kamchatka,  and  the  Aleutian  chain  as  far 
8  veast  as  Oomnak.  It  was  a  very  important  place  then,  and  this  ter- 
ritory of  its  jurisdiction  was  styled  the  "Atkhan  Division."  But 
within  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years,  fish  and  drift-wood  became  very 
scarce  on  the  Bering  Sea  coast,  so  the  inhabitants  made  a  sweeping 
removal  of  everything  from  the  ancient  site  on  Korovinsky  Bay  to 
that  of  Nazan,  where  the  little  hamlet  now  stands,  overtopped  by 
lofty  peaks  and  hills  on  every  side,  except  where  it  looks  out  over 
the  straits  to  the  bold  headlands  of  Seguam.  So  thorough  were 
they  in  this  "  nova-sailnah,"  that  they  even  disinterred  the  remains 
of  their  first  priest  and  re-buried  them  in  front  of  their  new  chapel 
— a  delightful  exhibition  of  fond  memory  and  respect  where  we 
might,  perhaps,  have  least  thought  to  have  found  them  manifested. 

The  curious  Island  of  Amlia  shuts  out  the  heavy  swell  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean  from  Nazan  Harbor,  and  gives  that  little  bay  great 
peace  and  protection.  This  island  is  thirty  miles  in  length,  and 
nowhere  has  it  a  breadth  of  over  four  miles ;  most  of  its  entire 
extent  is  only  some  two  miles  from  ocean  to  ocean.  It  consists  of 
a  string  of  sharp,  conical  peaks,  which  once  were  active  volcanoes, 
but  now  cold  and  silent  as  the  tomb.  So  abruptly  do  they  rise 
from  the  oceans  which  they  divide,  that  there  is  but  one  small  spot 
on  the  south  side  where  a  vessel  can  lie  at  anchor  and  effect  a 
landing. 

Atkha  is  a  large  island,  and  it  has  very  slight  resemblance  to 
that  of  Oonalashka  in  shape  ;  its  indented  fiords  are,  however,  less 
deep  and  not  near  so  commodious  and  accessible.  The  snowy, 
smoking  crater  of  Korovinsky  Sopka  stands  like  a  grim  sentinel 

*  Pleurogrammus  monopterygiua.  \  Scomber  scombrus. 


THE   GREAT  ALEUTIAN    CHAIN.  183 

overlooking  the  north  end  of  the  island,  a  sheer  five  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea-beach  at  its  feet.  A  few  miles  to  the  south  another 
rises  to  almost  as  great  an  elevation,  from  the  flanks  of  which 
a  number  of  hot  springs  pour  out  a  steady  boiling  flood  ;  then, 
at  the  northeast  extremity,  and  handsomely  visible  from  the  village, 
is  a  silent,  snowy  crater  which  they  call  Sarichev.  Korovinsky  is 
the  only  disturber  of  the  peace  that  rightfully  belongs  to  Atkha.  It 
is  constantly  emitting  smoke  and  ashes,  while  earthquakes  and 
subterranean  noises  are  felt  and  heard  all  over  the  island  at  frequent 
though  irregular  periods  during  the  entire  year.  In  the  ravines 
and  canons  of  this  volcano  and  its  satellites  are  the  only  glaciers 
which  the  geologist  has  ever  been  able  to  find  on  any  of  these 
peaked,  lofty  islands  west  of  Oonalashka,  though  a  hundred  eternal 
snow-clad  summits  and  a  thousand  snow-filled  gorges  are  easily 
discerned.  The  natives  here  also  describe  a  series  of  mud-volcanoes, 
or  "  mud-pots,"  that  exist  on  the  island,  in  which  this  stuff  is  con- 
stantly boiling  up  with  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow,  about  as  they 
seethe  and  puff  in  the  Geyser  Basin  of  the  Yellowstone  Park. 

There  are  a  dozen  or  so  small,  mountainous,  uninhabited  islands 
between  Atkha  and  the  larger  island  of  Adakh  in  the  west.  Very 
little  is  known  of  them,  since  they  endanger  life  if  a  landing  is 
made.  The  most  imposing  one  is  Sitkhin,  a  round,  mountainous, 
lofty  mass  which  culminates  in  a  snow-covered  peak  over  five  thou- 
sand feet  in  height.  The  crater  is  dead,  however,  and  no  sign  of 
ancient  volcanic  energy  is  now  displayed,  beyond  the  emission  of 
hot  springs  from  fissures  in  its  rocky  flanks.  Adakh  itself  is  quite  a 
large  island,  rough  and  hilly  to  an  excessive  degree.  A  grand  cone, 
which  rises  up  directly  in  the  centre  high  above  all  the  rest,  is  called 
the  "white  crater."  It  is  also  a  dead  volcano  like  Sitkhin;  but 
steamy  vapors  from  outpouring  hot  waters  rise  in  many  valleys 
and  from  the  uplands.  A  succession  of  volcanic  peaks  reared  from 
the  sea,  a  few  of  them  still  smoking  and  muttering,  constitute  the 
islands  of  Tanaga  and  Kanaga  in  the  vicinity  of  Adakh.  No  place 
is  feasible  for  a  boat  to  land  on  either  of  these  wild  islets,  except  on 
the  west  shore  of  Tanaga  in  Slava  Rossia  Bay. 

A  single  immense  peak,  rising  all  by  itself,  solitary  and  alone, 
from  the  girdle  of  surf  that  encircles  it — a  band  of  foaming  break- 
ers eighteen  miles  in  circumference,  is  the  islet  of  Goreloi.  It  is  a 
formidable  rival  of  the  majestic  volcano  of  Shishaldin,  on  Oonimak. 
Though  nearly  as  high,  yet  it  is  not  so  symmetrical  a  cone.  Wreaths 


184  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

and  solid  banks  of  fog  are  pressed  against  its  volcanic  sides,  and 
hang  around  its  glittering  white  head,  so  that  the  full  impression 
of  its  grandeur  cannot  strike  us  as  we  gaze  at  its  defiant  presence, 
where,  unsupported,  it  alone  beats  back  the  swell  of  a  vast  ocean. 

That  cluster  of  islands  which  stand  between  Goreloi  and  Attoo 
is  an  aggregate  of  cold  volcanic  peaks — Amchitka  and  Kyska  being 
the  largest — the  Seven  Peaks,  or  Semiseisopochnoi,  smoking  a 
little,  all  the  rest  entirely  quiet.  They  offer  no  hospitality  to  a 
traveller,  and  the  natives  have  done  wisely  in  abandoning  these  sav- 
age island-solitudes  to  reside  at  Nazan  Bay,  where  the  country  has 
a  most  genial  aspect,  and  many  stretches  of  warm  sand-dune  tracts 
are  found,  upon  which  vegetation  springs  into  luxuriant  life.  Here, 
also,  quite  a  herd  of  Kamchatkan  cattle  were  cared  for  when  the 
Russian  regime  was  in  vogue.  This  stock-raising  effort  was  not  a 
practical  success,  however,  and  the  last  of  the  bovine  race  disap- 
peared very  shortly  after  the  country  changed  ownership.  Goats 
were  also  introduced  here,  as  well  as  elsewhere  throughout  the  fur- 
trading  posts  of  the  old  company  in  Alaska  ;  but  the  morbid  pro- 
pensity of  those  pugnacious  little  animals  to  feed  upon  the  grasses 
which  grow  over  roofs  of  the  barraboras,  and  thus  break  in  aud 
otherwise  damage  such  earthen  tenements,  made  them  so  unpopular 
that  their  propagation  was  energetically  and  successfully  discour- 
aged by  the  suffering  Aleutes. 

Two  hundred  miles  of  uninhabited  waste  extends  between  the 
natives  of  Atkha  and  their  nearest  neighbors,  the  villagers  of  Nikol- 
sky,  who  live  in  a  small,  sheltered  bight  of  the  southwest  shore  of 
Oomnak.  This  is  one  of  the  largest  islands  of  the  whole  Aleutian 
group,  very  mountainous,  with  three  commanding,  overlooking 
peaks  that  are  most  imposing  in  their  rugged  elevation.  Several 
large  lakes  nestle  in  their  hilly  arms,  and  feed  salmon  rivulets  that 
rush  in  giddy  rapids  and  cascades  down  to  the  ocean.  Everything 
grows  at  Oomnak  which  we  have  noticed  on  its  sister  island  of 
Oonalashka,  except  the  willow  ;  while  cross  and  red  foxes  are  much 
more  abundant  here  than  at  any  other  place  in  the  whole  archipel- 
ago. A  great  many  hot  springs  boil  up  on  the  north  side,  and  only 
as  recently  as  1878  a  decided  volcanic  shock  was  experienced,  which 
resulted  in  the  upheaval  of  a  small  mud-crater  between  the  vil- 
lage and  Toolieskoi  Sopka,  a  huge  fire-mountain  of  the  middle 
interior.  Subterranean  noises  and  tremors  of  the  earth  are  chronic 
phenomena  here,  but  the  natives  pay  no  attention  to  them.  They 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN. 


185 


complain,  however,  of  inability  to  find  fish  where  they  usually  found 
them  in  abundance  prior  to  these  earthquakes.  Kedoubled  atten- 
tion, however,  is  paid  to  the  salmon  when  they  run,  and  thus  the 
deficiency  is  made  up. 

Before  the  coming  of  the  Kussians,  Oomnak  was  one  of  the 
most  populous  islands  ;  then  there  were  over  twenty  villages,  some 
of  them  quite  large.  One  was  so  big  that  "  the  inhabitants  of  it 
were  able  to  eat  the  carcass  of  an  enormous  whale  in  a  single  day !  " 
The  most  stubborn  and  independent  spirit  displayed  by  the  Aleutes 
prior  to  their  subjugation  was  exhibited  by  the  inhabitants  of  this 


An  Aleutian  Mummy. 
[Unrolled  from  it*  cerements.] 


island.  The  four  or  five  thousand  hardy  savages  which  the  pro- 
mishlyniks  met  here  in  1757-59  have  dwindled  to  a  microscopic 
number  of  less  than  one  hundred  and  thirty  souls,  who  reside  at 
Nikolsky  to-day.  They  enjoy  a  somewhat  better  climate,  for  a  good 
deal  less  snow  falls  here  than  at  Oonalashka,  and  the  small  vege- 
table-garden does  much  better  than  elsewhere,  except  at  Attoo. 
They  raise  domestic  fowls,  and  have  a  very  fair  sea-otter  catch 
every  winter,  when  they  scour  the  south  coast,  and  reside  for  months 
at  Samalga,  hunting  that  animal.  Furious  gales  which  prevail 
during  certain  seasons  drive  kahlans  out  upon  the  south  beach, 


186  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

there  to  rest  from  the  pelting  of  storms  :  then  they  are  speedily 
apprehended  and  clubbed  by  the  watchful  Oomnak  hunter. 

That  curious  group,  the  "  Cheetiery  Sopochnie,"  or  Islands  of  the 
Four  Mountains,  stands  right  across  the  straits,  opposite  Oomnak. 
From  Kaygamilak,  which  lies  nearest,  eleven  mummies  were  taken  as 
they  were  found  in  a  warm  cave  on  the  northeast  side  of  this  island. 
These  bodies  were  placed  there  in  1724,  or  some  twenty-five  or 
thirty  years  before  the  Eussians  first  appeared.  The  mummies  * 
were  in  fine  preservation,  and  were  the  remains  of  a  noted  chief 
and  his  family,  who  in  that  time  ruled  with  an  iron  hand  over  a 
large  number  of  his  people.  The  Island  of  Kayamil  is  a  mere  vol- 
canic series  of  fire-chimneys,  the  walls  of  which  are  not  yet  cool. 
The  southeast  shore  in  olden  times  was  the  site  of  several  large 
settlements,  where  the  people  lived  well  upon  an  abundance  of 
sea-lions,  hair-seals,  and  water-fowl,  which  still  repair  to  its  bor- 
ders. Now  that  it  is  desolate  and  uninhabitable,  large  flocks  of 
tundra  geese  spend  the  summers  here,  as  they  shed  their  feathers 
and  rear  their  young,  not  a  fox  to  vex  or  destroy  them  having 
been  left  by  those  prehistoric  Aleutian  hunters. 

But  on  Tahnak,  which  is  the  largest  of  the  group,  plenty  of  red 
foxes  are  reported.  The  loftiest  summits  are  also  on  this  one  of 
the  four  islets,  and  on  the  south  side  once  lived  a  race  of  the  most 
warlike  and  ferocious  of  all  Aleutes.  They  were  destroyed  to  a  man 
by  Glottov,  and  their  few  descendants  have  long  since  been  merged 
with  those  of  Oomnak,  where  they  now  live.  Several  small,  high, 
bluffy  islands  stand  around  Tahnak,  and  between  it  and  its  sister, 
Oonaska,  which  is  nearly  as  large,  equally  rugged  and  precipitous. 
Amootoyon  is  a  quite  small  islet,  and  completes  the  quartet  of 
"  Cheetiery  Sopochnie." 

A  most  interesting  volcanic  phenomenon  of  recent  record  is 
afforded  by  the  study  of  that  small  Bogaslov  islet  which  now  stands 
hot  and  smoking  twenty  miles  north  of  Oomnak,  and  which,  two 
years  ago,  raised  a  great  commotion  by  firing  up  anew.  In  the 
autumn  of  1796  the  natives  of  Oomnak  and  Oonalashka  were 
startled  by  a  series  of  loud  reports  like  parks  of  artillery,  followed 


*  These  specimens  were  procured  at  the  urgent  request  of  the  author,  who 
induced  a  trader  to  make  the  attempt,  September  22,  1874.  They  were  pre- 
sented by  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company  of  San  Francisco  to  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution. 


THE   GREAT   ALEUTIAN   CHAIN.  187 

by  tremblings  of  the  earth  upon  which  they  stood.  Then  a  dense 
dark  cloud,  full  of  gas  and  ashes,  came  down  upon  them  from 
Bering  Sea,  swept  by  a  northerly  wind,  and  it  hung  over  their 
astonished  heads  for  a  week  or  ten  days,  accompanied  by  earth- 
quakes and  subterranean  thunder  ;  then  when  an  interval  of  clear- 
ing occurred  by  a  change  of  winds,  they  saw  distinctly  to  the 
northward  a  bright  light  burning  over  the  sea.  The  boldest 
launched  their  bidarkas,  and,  after  a  close  inspection,  saw  that  a 
small  island  had  been  elevated  about  one  hundred  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  surrounding  waters  ;  that  it  had  been  forced  up  from 
some  fissure  of  the  bottom  to  the  sea,  and  was  still  rising,  while 
liquid  streams  of  lava  and  scoriae  made  it  impossible  for  them  to 
land.  This  plutonic  action  did  not  cease  here  until  1825,  when  it 
left  above  the  green  waters  of  Bering  Sea  an  isolated  oval  peak  with 
a  serrated  crest,  almost  inaccessible,  some  two  hundred  and  eighty 
feet  high,  and  two  or  three  miles  in  circumference.  The  Russians 
landed  here  then  for  the  first  time,  and  the  rocks  were  so  hot  that 
they  passed  but  a  few  moments  ashore.  It  has,  however,  cooled 
off  enough  now  to  be  occupied  by  large  herds  of  sea-lions,  and  is  re- 
sorted to  by  flocks  of  sea-fowl.  In  this  fashion  of  the  making  of 
Bogaslov  was  our  vast  chain  of  the  Aleutian  archipelago  cast  up 
from  that  line  of  least  resistance  in  the  earth's  crust  which  is  now 
marked  by  the  position  of  these  islands,  as  they  alternately  face  the 
billows  of  the  immense  wastes  of  the  Pacific,  and  those  storm-tossed 
waves  of  the  shoal  sea  of  Bering. 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

WONDERFUL  SEAL  ISLANDS. 

The  Fur-seal  Millions  of  the  Pribylov  Islands. — Marvellous  Exhibition  of 
Massed  Animal-life  in  a  State  of  Nature. — Story  of  the  Discovery  of 
these  Remarkable  Rookeries,  July,  1786. — Previous  Knowledge  of  them 
Unknown  to  Man. — Sketch  of  the  Pribylov  Islands. — Their  Character, 
Climate,  and  Human  Inhabitants. — A  Realm  of  Summer-fog. — The  Seal- 
life  here  Overshadows  Everything,  though  the  Bird  Rookeries  of  Saint 
George  are  Wonderful. — No  Harbors. — The  Roadsteads. — The  Attractive 
Flora. — Only  Islands  in  Alaska  where  the  Curse  of  Mosquitoes  is  Re- 
moved.— Natives  Gathering  Eggs  on  Walrus  Islet. — A  Scene  of  Confusion 
and  Uproar.  —Contrast  very  Great  between  Saint  Paul  and  Saint  George. 
— Good  Reason  of  the  Seals  in  Resorting  to  these  Islands  to  the  Exclusion 
of  all  other  Land  in  Alaska.  — Old-time  Manners  and  Methods  of  the  Rus- 
sians Contrasted  with  Our  Present  Control. — Vast  Gain  and  Improvement 
for  Seals  and  Natives. — The  Character  of  the  Present  Residents. — Their 
Attachment  to  the  Islands. — The  History  of  the  Alaska  Commercial  Com- 
pany.— The  Wise  Action  of  Congress. — The  Perfect  Supervision  of  the 
Agents  of  the  Government. — Seals  are  more  Numerous  now  than  at  First. 
— The  Methods  of  the  Company,  the  Government,  and  the  Natives  in 
Taking  the  Seals. 

When  they  the  approaching  time  perceive, 
They  flee  the  deep,  and  watery  pastures  leave  ; 
On  the  dry  ground,  far  from  the  swelling  tide, 
Bring  forth  their  young,  and  on  the  shores  abide 
Till  twice  six  times  they  see  the  eastern  gleams 
Brighten  the  hills  and  tremble  on  the  streams. 
The  thirteenth  morn,  soon  as  the  early  dawn 
Hangs  out  its  crimson  folds  or  spreads  its  lawn, 
No  more  the  fields  and  lofty  coverts  please, 
Each  hugs  her  own  and  hastes  to  rolling  seas. 

— OVID. 

THE  story  of  the  gloomy  grandeur  of  Alaskan  scenery  and  the  wild 
existence  of  its  inhabitants  is  not  half  told  until  that  picture  of 
what  we  observe  on  the  Pribylov  Islands  of  Bering  Sea  is  graphic- 
ally drawn.  Here  is  annually  presented  one  of  the  most  mar- 


WONDERFUL   SEAL  ISLANDS.  189 

vellous  exhibitioDs  of  massed  animal-life  that  is  known  to  man, 
civilized  or  savage  ;  here  is  exhibited  the  perfect  working  of  an 
anomalous  industry,  conducted  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of 
human  enterprise,  and  of  immense  pecuniary  and  biological  value. 

In  treating  this  subject  the  writer  has  trusted  to  nothing  save 
what  he  himself  has  seen,  for,  until  these  life-studies  were  made  by 
him,  no  succinct  and  consecutive  history  of  the  lives  and  move- 
ments of  these  animals  had  been  published  by  any  man.  Fanciful 
yarns,  woven  by  the  ingenuity  of  whaling  captains,  in  which  the 
truth  was  easily  blended  with  that  which  was  not  true,  and  short 
paragraphs  penned  hastily  by  naturalists  of  more  or  less  repute, 
formed  the  knowledge  that  we  had.  Best  of  all  was  the  old  diary 
of  Steller,  who,  while  suffering  bodily  tortures,  the  legacy  of  gan- 
grene and  scurvy,  when  wrecked  with  Bering  on  the  Commander 
Islands,  showed  the  nerve,  the  interest,  and  the  energy  of  a  true 
naturalist.  He  daily  crept,  with  aching  bones  and  watery  eyes, 
over  the  boulders  and  mossy  flats  of  Bering  Island  to  catch  glimpses 
of  those  strange  animals  which  abode  there  then  as  they  abide  to- 
day. Considering  the  physical  difficulties  that  environed  Steller, 
the  notes  made  by  him  on  the  sea-bears  of  the  North  Pacific  are 
remarkably  good  ;  but,  as  I  have  said,  they  fall'  so  far  from  giving 
a  fair  and  adequate  idea  of  what  these  immense  herds  are  and  do 
as  to  be  absolutely  valueless  for  the  present  hour.  Shortly  after 
Steller's  time  great  activity  sprang  up  in  the  South  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  over  the  capture  and  sale  of  fur-seal  skins  taken  in  those 
localities.  It  is  extraordinary  that,  though  whole  fleets  of  Ameri- 
can, English,  French,  Dutch,  and  Portuguese  vessels  engaged  dur- 
ing a  period  of  protracted  enterprise  of  over  eighty  years  in  length 
in  the  business  of  repairing  to  the  numerous  rookeries  of  the  Ant- 
arctic, returning  annually  laden  with  enormous  cargoes  of  fur-seal 
skins,  yet,  as  above  mentioned,  hardly  a  definite  line  of  record  has 
been  made  in  regard  to  the  whole  transaction,  involving,  as  it  did, 
so  much  labor  and  so  much  capital. 

The  fact  is,  that  the  acquisition  of  these  pelagic  peltries  had  en- 
gaged thousands  of  men,  and  that  millions  of  dollars  had  been  em- 
ployed in  capturing,  dressing,  and  selling  fur-seal  skins  during  the 
hundred  years  just  passed  by  ;  nevertheless,  from  the  time  of  Stel- 
ler, away  back  as  far  as  1751,  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  last  dec- 
ade, the  scientific  world  actually  knew  nothing  definite  in  regard 
to  the  life  history  of  this  valuable  animal.  The  truth  connected 


190  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

with  the  life  of  the  fur-seal,  as  it  herds  in  countless  myriads  on  the 
Pribylov  Islands  of  Alaska,  is  far  stranger  than  fiction.  Perhaps 
the  existing  ignorance  has  been  caused  by  confounding  the  hair- 
seal,  Phoca  vitulina,  and  its  kind,  with  the  creature  now  under  dis- 
cussion. Two  animals,  more  dissimilar  in  their  individuality  and 
method  of  living,  can,  however,  hardly  be  imagined,  although 
they  belong  to  the  same  group,  and  live  apparently  upon  the  same 
food. 

The  following  notes,  surveys,  and  hypotheses  herewith  presented 
are  founded  upon  the  writer's  personal  observations  in  the  seal- 
rookeries  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  George,  during  the  seasons  of  1872  to 
1874  inclusive,  supplemented  by  his  confirmatory  inspection  made 
in  1876.  They  were  obtained  during  long  days  and  nights  of  con- 
secutive observation,  from  the  beginning  to  the  close  of  each  seal- 
season,  and  cover,  by  actual  surveys,  the  entire  ground  occupied  by 
these  animals. 

During  the  progress  of  heated  controversies  that  took  place 
pending  the  negotiation  which  ended  in  the  acquisition  of  Alaska 
by  our  Government,  frequent  references  were  made  to  the  fur-seal. 
Strange  to  say,  this  animal  was  so  vaguely  known  at  that  time,  even 
to  scientific  men,  that  it  was  almost  without  representation  in  any 
of  the  best  zoological  collections  of  the  world  ;  even  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution  did  not  possess  a  perfect  skin  and  skeleton.  The 
writer,  then  as  now,  an  associate  and  collaborator  of  that  establish- 
ment, had  his  curiosity  very  much  excited  by  these  stories ;  and  in 
March,  1872,  he  was,  by  the  joint  action  of  Professor  Baird  and  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  enabled  to  visit  the  Pribylov  Islands  for 
the  purpose  of  studying  the  life  and  habits  of  the.se  animals.* 

All  writers  on  the  subject  of  Alaskan  exploration  and  enterprise 
agree  as  to  the  cause  of  the  discovery  of  the  Pribylov  Islands  in  the 
last  century.  It  was  due  to  the  feverish  anxiety  of  a  handful  of 

*  It  was  with  peculiar  pleasure  that  the  writer  undertook,  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  Professor  Baird,  who  is  the  honored  and  beloved  secretary  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  the  task  of  examining  into  and  reporting  upon  this 
subject ;  and  it  is  also  gratifying  to  add,  that  the  statements  of  fact  and  the 
hypotheses  evolved  therefrom  by  him  in  1874  have,  up  to  the  present  time, 
been  verified  by  an  inflexible  sequence  of  events  on  the  ground  itself.  The 
concurrent  testimony  of  the  numerous  agents  of  the  Treasury  Department  and 
the  Government  generally,  who  have  trodden  in  his  footsteps,  amply  testifies 
to  their  stability. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  191 

Kussian  fur-gatherers,  who  desired  to  find  new  fields  of  gain  when 
they  had  exhausted  those  last  uncovered.  Altasov  and  his  band  of 
Russians,  Tartars,  and  Cossacks  arrived  at  Kamtchatka  toward  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  they  were  the  first  discoverers 
of  the  beautiful,  costly  fur  of  the  sea-otter.  The  animal  bearing 
this  pelage  abounded  then  on  that  coast,  but  by  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  they  and  those  who  came  after  them  had  en- 
tirely extirpated  it  from  that  country.  Then  the  survivors  of  Be- 
ring's second  voyage  of  observation,  in  1741-42,  and  Tschericov 
brought  back  an  enormous  number  of  skins  from  Bering  Island  ; 
then  Michael  Novodiskov  discovered  Attoo  and  the  contiguous 
islands  in  1745  ;  Paicov  came  after  him,  and  opened  out  the  Fox 
Islands,  in  the  same  chain,  during  1759  ;  then  succeeded  Stepan 
Giotto v,  of  infamous  memory,  who  determined  Kadiak  in  1763  ;  the 
peninsula  of  Alaska  was  discovered  by  Krenitsin  in  1768.  During 
these  long  years,  from  the  discovery  of  Attoo  until  the  last  date  men- 
tioned above,  a  great  many  Russian  companies  fitted  out  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Amoor  River  and  in  the  Okotsk  Sea  ;  they  prospected 
therefrom  this  whole  Aleutian  archipelago  in  search  of  the  sea-otter. 
There  were,  perhaps,  twenty-five  or  thirty  different  companies,  with 
quite  a  fleet  of  small  vessels ;  and  so  energetic  and  thorough  were 
they  in  their  search  and  capture  of  the  sea-otter  that  as  early  as 
1772  and  1774  the  catch  in  that  group  had  dwindled  from  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  at  first  to  hundreds  and  tens  of  hundreds  at 
last.  As  all  men  do  when  they  find  that  that  which  they  are  en- 
gaged in  is  failing  them,  a  change  of  search  and  inquiry  was  in 
order ;  and,  then  the  fur-seal,  which  had  been  noted,  but  not  valued 
much,  every  year  as  it  went  north  in  the  spring  through  the  passes 
and  channels  of  the  Aleutian  chain,  then  going  back  south  again  in 
the  fall,  became  the  source  of  much  speculation  as  to  where  it  spent 
its  time  on  land  and  how  it  bred.  No  one  had  ever  known  of  its 
stopping  one  solitary  hour  on  a  single  rock  or  beach  throughout  all 
Alaska  or  the  northwest  coast.  The  natives,  when  questioned,  ex- 
pressed themselves  as  entirely  ignorant,  though  they  believed,  'as 
they  believe  in  many  things  of  which  they  have  no  knowledge,  that 
these  seals  repaired  to  some  unknown  land  in  the  north  every  sum- 
mer and  left  it  every  winter.  They  also  reasoned  then,  that  when 
they  left  the  unknown  land  to  the  north  in  the  fall,  and  went  south 
into  the  North  Pacific,  they  travelled  to  some  other  strange  island  or 
continent  there,  upon  which  in  turn  to  spend  the  winter.  Naturally 


192  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

the  Russians  preferred  to  look  for  the  supposed  winter  resting- 
places  of  the  fur-seal,  and  forthwith  a  hundred  schooners  and  shal- 
lops sailed  into  storm  and  fog,  to  the  northward  occasionally,  and 
always  to  the  southward,  in  search  of  this  rumored  breeding-ground. 
Indeed,  if  the  record  can  be  credited,  the  whole  bent  of  this 
Russian  attention  and  search  for  the  fur-seal  islands  was  devoted 
to  that  region  south  of  the  Aleutian  Islands,  between  Japan  and 
Oregon. 

Hence  it  was  not  until  1786,  after  more  than  eighteen  years  of 
unremitting  search  by  hardy  navigators,  that  the  Pribylov  Islands 
were  discovered.  It  seems  that  a  rugged  Muscovitic  "  stoorman," 
or  ship's  "  mate,"  Gerassim  Pribylov  by  name,  serving  under  the 
direction  and  in  the  pay  of  one  of  the  many  companies  engaged  in 
the  fur-business  at  that  time,  was  much  moved  and  exercised  in  his 
mind  by  the  revelations  of  an  old  Aleutian  shaman  at  Oonalashka, 
who  pretended  to  recite  a  legend  of  the  natives,  wherein  he  de- 
clared that  certain  islands  in  Bering  Sea  had  long  been  known  to 
the  Aleutes. 

Pribylov*  commanded  a  small  sloop,  the  St.  George,  which 
he  employed  for  three  successive  years  in  constant,  though  fruit- 
less, explorations  to  the  northward  of  Oonalashka  and  Oonimak, 
ranging  over  the  whole  of  Bering  Sea  from  the  straits  above.  His 
ill-success  does  not  now  seem  strange  as  we  understand  the  cur- 
rents, the  winds,  and  fogs  of  those  waters.  Why,  only  recently  the 
writer  himself  has  been  on  one  of  the  best-manned  vessels  that  ever 

*  Pribylov,  the  discoverer  of  the  Seal  Islands,  was  a  native  of  "  old  Rus- 
sia." His  father  was  one  of  the  surviving  sailors  of  the  St.  Peter,  which 
was  wrecked,  with  Bering  in  command,  November  4,  1741,  on  Bering  Island. 
The  only  reference  which  I  can  find  to  him  is  the  vague  incidental  expressions, 
used  here  and  there  throughout  an  extended  series  of  lengthy  Russian  letters 
published  by  Techmainov,  as  illustrative  of  the  condition  of  affairs  in  regard 
to  the  Russian  American  Company.  Pribylov  was,  when  cruising  in  1783-86 
for  the  rumored  seal-grounds,  merely  the  first  mate  of  the  sloop  St.  George. 
The  captain  and  part  owner  was  one  M.  Subov,  who  was  a  member  of  a  trad- 
ing' association  then  well  organized  in  Alaska,  and  widely  known  as  the  ' '  Lay- 
baidev  Lastochin"  Company.  It  does  not  appear  that  Pribylov  took  any  part 
in  the  business  of  sealing  other  than  that  of  remaining  in  charge  of  the  com- 
pany's vessels.  He  died  while  in  discharge  of  these  duties  at  Sitka,  March, 
1796,  on  his  ship  The  TJiree  Saints. 

Pribylov  himself  called  these  islands  of  his  discovery  after  Subov ;  but 
the  Russians  then,  and  soon  after  unanimously,  indicated  the  group  by  its 
present  well-deserved  title,  "  Ostrovie  Pribylova." 


WONDERFUL    SEAL   ISLANDS.  193 

sailed  from  any  port,  provided  with  good  charts  and  equipped  with 
all  the  marine  machinery  known  to  navigation,  and  that  vessel  has 
hovered  for  nine  successive  days  off  the  north  point  and  around 
St.  Paul  Island,  sometimes  almost  on  the  reef,  and  never  more 
than  ten  miles  away,  without  actually  knowing  where  the  island 
was !  So  Pribylov  did  well,  considering,  when  at  the  beginning  of 
the  third  summer's  tedious  search,  in  July,  1786,  his  old  sloop  ran 
up  against  the  walls  of  Tolstoi  Mees,  at  St.  George,  and,  though 
the  fog  was  so  thick  that  he  could  see  scarce  the  length  of  his  ves- 
sel, his  ears  were  regaled  by  the  sweet  music  of  seal-rookeries 
wafted  out  to  him  on  the  heavy  air.  He  knew  then  that  he  had 
found  the  object  of  his  search,  and  he  at  once  took  possession  of 
the  island  in  the  Russian  name  and  that  of  his  craft. 

His  secret  could  not  long  be  kept.  He  had  left  some  of  his 
men  behind  him  to  hold  the  island,  and  when  he  returned  to  Oona- 
lashka  they  were  gone ;  and  ere  the  next  season  fairly  opened,  a 
dozen  vessels  were  watching  him  and  trimming  in  his  wake.  Of 
course,  they  all  found  the  island,  and  in  that  year,  July,  1787,  the 
sailors  of  Pribylov,  on  St.  George,  while  climbing  the  bluffs  and 
straining  their  eyes  for  a  relief-ship,  descried  the  low  coast  and 
scattered  cones  of  St.  Paul,  thirty-six  miles  to  the  northwest  of 
them.  When  they  landed  at  St.  George,  not  a  sign  or  a  vestige  of 
human  habitation  was  found  thereon  ;  but  during  the  succeeding 
year,  when  they  crossed  over  to  St.  Paul  and  took  possession  of 
it,  in  turn,  they  were  surprised  at  finding  on  the  south  coast  of 
that  island,  at  a  point  now  known  as  English  Bay,  the  remains  of  a 
recent  fire.  There  were  charred  embers  of  driftwood  and  places 
where  grass  had  been  scorched ;  there  was  a  pipe  and  a  brass  knife- 
handle,  which,  I  regret  to  say,  have  long  passed  beyond  the  cog- 
nizance of  any  ethnologist.  This  much  appears  in  the  Russian 
records. 

But,  if  we  can  believe  the  Aleutes  in  what  they  relate,  the  islands 
were  known  to  them  long  before  they  were  visited  by  the  Russians. 
They  knew  and  called  them  "Ateek,"  after  having  heard  about 
them.  The  legend  of  these  people  was  as  follows  : 

Eegad-dah-geek,  a  son  of  an  Oonimak  chief  of  the  name  of  Ah- 
kak-nee-kak,  was  taken  out  to  sea  in  a  bidarka  by  a  storm,  the 
wind  blowing  strong  from  the  south.  He  could  not  get  back  to 
the  beach,  nor  could  he  make  any  other  landing,  and  was  obliged 
to  run  before  the  wind  three  or  four  days,  when  he  brought  up 
13 


194  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

on  St.  Paul  Island,  north  from  the  land  which  he  had  been  com- 
pelled to  leave.  Here  he  remained  until  autumn,  and  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  hunting  of  different  animals.  Elegant  weather 
one  day  setting  in,  he  saw  the  peaks  of  Oonimak.  He  then  re- 
solved to  put  to  sea,  and  return  to  receive  the  thanks  of  his  people 
there,  and  after  three  or  four  days  of  travelling  he  arrived  at  Ooni- 
mak with  "many  otter  tails  and  snouts."  * 

The  Pribylov  Islands  lie  in  the  heart  of  Bering  Sea,  and  are 
among  the  most  insignificant  landmarks  known  to  that  ocean. 
They  are  situated  one  hundred  and  ninety-two  miles  north  of  Oon- 
alashka,  two  hundred  miles  south  of  St.  Matthews,  and  about  the 
same  distance  westward  of  Cape  Newenham  on  the  mainland. 

The  islands  of  St.  George  and  St.  Paul  are  from  twenty-seven 
to  thirty  miles  apart,  St.  George  lying  southeastward  of  St.  Paul. 
They  are  far  enough  south  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  permanent 
ice-floes,  upon  which  polar  bears  would  have  made  their  way  to  the 
islands,  though  a  few  of  these  animals  were  doubtless  always  pres- 
ent. They  were  also  distant  enough  from  the  inhabited  Aleutian 
districts  and  the  coast  of  the  mainland  to  have  remained  unknown 
to  savage  men.  Hence  they  afforded  the  fur-seal  the  happiest 
shelter  and  isolation,  for  their  position  seems  to  be  such  as  to 
surround  and  envelop  them  with  fog-banks  that  fairly  shut  out  the 
sun  nine  days  in  every  ten  during  the  summer  and  breeding-season. 

In  this  location  ocean-currents  from  the  great  Pacific,  warmer 
than  the  normal  temperature  of  this  latitude,  trending  up  from 
southward,  ebb  and  flow  around  the  islands  as  they  pass,  giving  rise 
during  the  summer  and  early  autumn  to  constant,  dense,  humid 
fog  and  drizzling  mists,  which  hang  in  heavy  banks  over  the  ground 
and  the  sea-line,  seldom  dissolving  away  to  indicate  a  pleasant  day. 
By  the  middle  or  end  of  October  strong,  cold  winds,  refrigerated 
on  the  Siberian  steppes,  sweep  down  over  the  islands,  carrying  off 


*  Veniaminov  says  that  he  does  feel  inclined  to  believe  this  story,  as  the 
peaks  of  Oonimak  can  be  seen  occasionally  from  St.  Paul.  I  have  no  hesi- 
tation in  saying  that  they  were  never  observed  by  any  mortal  eye  from  the 
Pribylov  group.  The  wide  expanse  of  water  between  these  points,  and  the 
thick,  foggy  air  of  Bering  Sea,  especially  so  at  the  season  mentioned  in  this 
story  above,  will  always  make  the  mountains  of  Oonimak  invisible  to  the  eye 
from  Saint  Paul  Island.  A  mirage  is  almost  an  impossibility.  It  may  have 
been  much  more  probable  if  the  date  was  a  winter  one. — Veniaminov  :  Zapies- 
kie  ob  Oonalashkenskaho  Otdayla,  etc.,  1842. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  195 

the  moisture  and  clearing  up  the  air.  By  the  end  of  January,  or 
early  in  February,  they  usually  bring,  by  their  steady  pressure, 
from  the  north  and  northwest,  great  fields  of  broken  ice,  sludgy 
floes,  with  nothing  in  them  approximating  or  approaching  glacial 
ice.  They  are  not  very  heavy  or  thick,  but  as  the  wind  blows  they 
compactly  cover  the  whole  surface  of  the  sea,  completely  shutting 
in  the  land,  and  for  months  at  a  time  hush  the  wonted  roar  of  the 
surf.  In  the  exceptionally  cold  seasons  that  succeed  each  other  up 
there  every  four  or  five  years,  for  periods  of  three  and  even  four 
months — from  December  to  May,  and  sometimes  into  June — the 
islands  will  be  completely  environed  and  ice-bound.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  about  the  same  rotation,  occur  exceptionally  mild  winters. 
Not  even  the  sight  of  an  ice-blink  is  recorded  then  during  the  whole 
winter,  and  there  is  very  little  skating  on  the  shallow  lakes  and 
lagoons  peculiar  to  St.  Paul  and  St.  George.  This,  however,  is  not 
often  the  case. 

The  breaking  up  of  winter-weather  and  the  precipitation  of 
summer  (for  there  is  no  real  spring  or  autumn  in  these  latitudes), 
usually  commences  about  the  first  week  in  ApriL  The  ice  begins 
to  leave  or  dissolve  at  that  time,  or  a  little  later,  so  that  by  the  1st 
or  5th  of  May,  the  beaches  and  rocky  sea-margin  beneath  the  mural 
precipices  are  generally  clear  and  free  from  ice  and  snow,  although 
the  latter  occasionally  lies,  until  the  end  of  July  or  the  middle  of 
August,  in  gullies  and  on  leeward  hill-slopes,  where  it  has  drifted 
during  the  winter.  Fog,  thick  and  heavy,  rolls  up  from  the  sea,  and 
closes  over  the  land  about  the  end  of  May.  This,  the  habitual  sign 
of  summer,  holds  on  steadily  to  the  middle  or  end  of  October  again. 

The  periods  of  change  in  climate  are  exceedingly  irregular 
during  the  autumn  and  spring,  so-called,  but  in  summer  a  cool, 
moist,  shady  gray  fog  is  constantly  present.  To  this  certainty  of 
favored  climate,  coupled  with  the  perfect  isolation  and  an  exceed- 
ing fitness  of  the  ground,  is  due,  without  doubt,  that  preference 
manifested  by  the  warm-blooded  animals  which  come  here  every 
year,  in  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  to  breed,  to  the 
practical  exclusion  of  all  other  ground.* 

I  simply  remark  here,  that  the  winter  which  I  passed  upon  St. 

*  A  large  amount  of  information  in  regard  to  the  climate  of  these  islands 
has  been  collected  and  recorded  by  the  signal  service,  United  States  Army, 
and  similar  observations  are  still  continued  by  the  agents  of  the  Alaska  Com- 
mercial Company. 


196  ODR  ARCTIC  PROVINCE. 

Paul  Island  (1872-73)  was  one  of  great  severity,  and,  according 
to  the  natives,  such  as  is  veiy  seldom  experienced.  Cold  as  it  was, 
however,  the  lowest  marking  of  the  thermometer  was  only  12°  Fahr. 
below  zero,  and  that  lasted  but  a  few  hours  during  a  single  day 
in  February,  while  the  mean  of  that  month  was  18°  above.  I  found 
that  March  was  the  coldest  month.  Then  the  mean  was  12°  above, 
and  I  have  since  learned  that  March  continues  to  be  the  meanest 
month  of  the  year.  The  lowest  average  of  a  usual  winter  ranges 
from  22°  to  26°  above  zero  ;  but  these  quiet  figures  are  simply  in- 
adequate to  impress  the  reader  with  this  exceeding  discomfort  of 
a  winter  in  that  locality.  It  is  the  wind  that  tortures  and  cripples 
out-door  exercise  there,  as  it  does  on  all  the  sea-coasts  and  islands 
of  Alaska.  It  is  blowing,  blowing,  from  every  point  of  the  compass 
at  all  times ;  it  is  an  everlasting  succession  of  furious  gales,  laden 
with  snow  and  sleety  spiculse,  whirling  in  great  drifts  to-day,  while 
to-morrow  the  wind  will  blow  from  a  quarter  directly  opposite,  and 
reverse  its  drift-building  action  of  the  day  preceding. 

Without  being  cold  enough  to  suffer,  one  is  literally  confined 
and  chained  to  his  room  from  December  until  April  by  this  .ZEolian 
tension.  I  remember  very  well  that,  during  the  winter  of  1872-73, 
I  was  watching,  with  all  the  impatience  which  a  man  in  full  health 
and  tired  of  confinement  can  possess,  every  opportunity  to  seize 
upon  quiet  intervals  between  the  storms,  in  which  I  could  make 
short  trips  along  those  tracks  over  which  I  was  habituated  to  walk 
during  the  summer  ;  but  in  all  that  hyemal  season  I  got  out  but 
three  times,  and  then  only  by  the  exertion  of  great  physical  energy. 
On  a  day  in  March,  for  example,  the  velocity  of  the  wind  at  St. 
Paul,  recorded  by  one  of  the  signal-service  anemometers,  was  at  the 
rate  of  eighty-eight  miles  per  hour,  with  as  low  a  temperature  as 
—4°  !  This  particular  wind-storm,  with  snow,  blew  at  such  a  velocity 
for  six  days  without  an  hour's  cessation,  while  the  natives  passed 
from  house  to  house  crawling  on  all  fours.  No  man  could  stand  up 
against  it,  and  no  man  wanted  to.  At  a  much  higher  temperature 
— say  at  15°  or  16°  above  zero — with  the  wind  blowing  only  twenty 
or  twenty-five  miles  an  hour,  it  is  necessary,  when  journeying,  to 
be  most  thoroughly  wrapped  up  so  as  to  guard  against  freezing. 

As  I  have  said,  there  are  here  virtually  but  two  seasons — winter 
and  summer.  To  the  former  belongs  November  and  the  following 
months  up  to  the  end  of  April,  with  a  mean  temperature  of  20°  to 
28°  ;  while  the  transition  of  summer  is  but  a  very  slight  elevation 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  197 

of  that  temperature,  not  more  than  15°  or  20°.  Of  the  summer 
months,  July,  perhaps,  is  the  warmest,  with  an  average  temperature 
between  46°  and  50°  in  ordinary  seasons.  When  the  sun  breaks  out 
through  the  fog,  and  bathes  the  dripping,  water-soaked  hills  and 
flats  of  the  island  in  its  hot  flood  of  light,  I  have  known  the  ther- 
mometer to  rise  to  60°  and  64°  in  the  shade,  while  the  natives 
crawled  out  of  that  fervent  and  unwonted  heat,  anathematizing  its 
brilliancy  and  potency.  Sunshine  does  them  no  good  ;  for,  like  the 
seals,  they  seem  under  its  influence  to  swell  up  at  the  neck.  A 
little  of  it  suffices  handsomely  for  both  Aleutes  and  pinnipedia,  to 
whom  the  ordinary  atmosphere  is  much  more  agreeable. 

It  is  astonishing  how  rapidly  snow  melts  here.  This  is  due, 
probably,  to  the  saline  character  of  the  air,  for  when  the  tempera- 
ture is  only  a  single  degree  above  freezing,  and  after  several  suc- 
cessive days  in  April  or  May,  at  34°  and  36°,  grass  begins  to  grow, 
even  if  it  be  under  melting  drifts,  and  the  frost  has  penetrated  the 
ground  many  feet  below.  I  have  said  that  this  humidity  and  fog, 
so  strongly  and  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the  Pribylov  group,  was 
due  to  the  warmer  ocean -currents  setting  up  from  the  coast  of 
Japan,  trending  to  the  Arctic  through  Bering's  Straits,  and  de- 
flected to  the  southward  into  the  North  Pacific,  laving,  as  it  flows, 
the  numerous  passes  and  channels  of  the  great  Aleutian  chain  ;  but 
I  do  not  think,  nor  do  I  wish  to  be  understood  as  saying,  that  my 
observation  in  this  respect  warrants  any  conclusion  as  to  so  large  a 
Gulf  Stream  flowing  to  the  north,  such  as  mariners  and  hydrog- 
raphers  recognize  upon  the  Atlantic  coast.  I  do  not  believe  that 
there  is  anything  of  the  kind  equal  to  it  in  Bering  Sea.  I  believe, 
however,  that  there  is  a  steady  set  up  to  the  northward  from  south- 
ward around  the  Seal  Islands,  which  is  continued  through  Bering's 
Straits,  and  drifts  steadily  off  up  to  the  northeast,  until  it  is  lost 
beyond  Point  Barrow.  That  this  pelagic  circulation  exists,  is 
clearly  proven  by  the  logs  of  the  whalers,  who,  from  1845  to  1856, 
literally  filled  the  air  over  those  waters  with  the  smoke  of  their 
"try-fires,"  and  ploughed  every  square  rod  of  that  superficial  marine 
area  with  their  adventurous  keels.  While  no  two,  perhaps,  of  those 
old  whaling  captains  living  to-day  will  agree  as  to  the  exact  course 
of  tides,*  for  Alaskan  tides  do  not  seem  to  obey  any  law,  they  all 


*The  rise  and  fall  of  tide  at  the  Seal  Islands'  I  carefully  watched  one 
whole  season  at  St.  Paul.     The  irregularity,  however,  of  ebb  and  flow  is  the 


198  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

affirm  the  existence  of  a  steady  current,  passing  up  from  the  south 
to  the  northeast,  through  Bering's  Straits.  The  flow  is  not  rapid, 
and  is  doubtless  checked  at  times,  for  short  intervals,  by  other 
causes,  which  need  not  be  discussed  here.  It  is  certain,  however, 
that  there  is  warm  water  enough,  abnormal  to  the  latitude,  for  the 
evolution  of  those  characteristic  fog-banks,  which  almost  discomfited 
Pribylov,  at  the  time  of  his  discovery  of  the  islands,  nearly  one  hun- 
dred years  ago,  and  which  have  remained  ever  since. 

Without  this  fog  the  fur-seal  would  never  have  rested  there  as 
he  has  done  ;  but  when  he  came  on  his  voyage  of  discovery,  ages 
ago,  up  from  the  rocky  coasts  of  Patagonia  mayhap,  had  he  not 
found  this  cool,  moist  temperature  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  George,  he 
would  have  kept  on,  completed  the  circuit,  and  returned  to  those 
congenial  antipodes  of  his  birth. 

Speaking  of  the  stormy  weather  brings  to  my  mind  the  beauti- 
ful, varied,  and  impressive  nephelogical  display  in  the  heavens  over- 
head here  during  October  and  November.  I  may  say,  without  ex- 
aggeration, that  the  cloud-effects  which  I  have  witnessed  from  the 
bluffs  of  this  little  island,  at  this  season  of  the  year,  surpass  any- 
thing that  I  had  ever  seen  before.  Perhaps  the  mighty  masses  of 
cumuli,  deriving  their, origin  from  warm  exhalations  out  of  the  sea, 
and  swelled  and  whirled  with  such  rapidity,  in  spite  of  their  appear- 
ance of  solidity,  across  the  horizon,  owe  their  striking  brilliancy  of 
color  and  prismatic  tones  to  that  low  declination  of  the  sun  due  to 
the  latitude.  Whatever  the  cause  may  be,  and  this  is  not  the  place 
to  discuss  it,  certainly  no  other  spot  on  earth  can  boast  of  a  more 
striking  and  brilliant  cloud-display.  In  the  season  of  1865-66, 
when  I  was  encamped  on  this  same  parallel  of  latitude  in  the  moun- 
tains eastward  of  Sitka  and  the  interior,  I  was  particularly  attracted 
by  an  exceeding  brilliancy,  persistency,  and  activity  of  the  aurora  ; 
but  here  on  St.  Paul,  though  I  eagerly  looked  for  its  dancing  light, 
it  seldom  appeared  ;  and  when  it  did  it  was  a  sad  disappointment, 
the  exhibition  always  being  insignificant  as  compared  in  my 
mind  with  its  flashing  of  my  previous  experience.  A  quaint  old 
writer,  a  hundred  years  ago,  was  describing  Norway  and  its  peo- 

most  prominent  feature  of  the  matter.  The  highest  rise  in  the  spring-tides 
was  a  trifle  over  four  feet,  while  that  of  ,the  neap-tides  not  much  over  two. 
Owing  to  the  nature  of  the  case,  it  is  impossible  to  prepare  a  tidal  calendar  for 
Alaska,  above  the  Aleutian  Islands,  which  will  even  faintly  foreshadow  a  cor- 
rect registration  in  advance. 


WONDERFUL    SEAL   ISLANDS.  199 

pie  :  be  advanced  what  he  considered  a  very  plausible  theory 
for  the  cause  of  the  aurora ;  he  cited  an  ancient  sage,  who  be- 
lieved that  the  change  of  winds  threw  the  saline  particles  of  the 
sea  high  into  the  air,  and  then  by  aerial  friction,  "  fermentation  " 
took  place,  and  the  light  was  evolved  !  I  am  sure  that  the  saline 
particles  of  Bering  Sea  were  whirled  into  the  air  during  the  whole 
of  that  winter  of  my  residence  there,  but  no  "  fermentation "  oc- 
curred, evidently,  since  rarely  indeed  did  the  aurora  greet  my  eyes. 
In  the  summer  season  there  is  considerable  lightning  ;  you  will  see 
it  streak  its  zigzag  path  mornings,  evenings,  and  even  noondays,  but 
from  the  dark  clouds  and  their  swelling  masses  upon  which  it  is 
portrayed  no  sound  returns — zfulmen  brut  urn,  in  fact.  I  remember 
hearing  but  one  clap  of  thunder  while  in  that  country.  If  I  recol- 
lect aright,  and  my  Russian  served  me  well,  one  of  the  old  natives 
told  me  that  it  was  no  mystery,  this  light  of  the  aurora,  for,  said  he, 
"  we  all  believe  that  there  are  fire-mountains  away  up  toward  the 
north,  and  what  we  see  comes  from  their  burning  throats,  mirrored 
back  on  the  heavens." 

The  formation  of  these  islands,  St.  Paul  and  St.  George,  was 
recent,  geologically  speaking,  and  directly  due  to  volcanic  agency, 
which  lifted  them  abruptly,  though  gradually,  from  the  sea-bed. 
Little  spouting  craters  then  actively  poured  out  cinders  and  other  / 
volcanic  breccia  upon  the  table-bed  of  basalt,  depositing  below  as  l' 
well  as  above  the  water's  level  as  they  rose  ;  and  subsequently  fin- 
ishing their  work  of  construction  through  the  agency  of  these 
spout-holes  or  craters,  from  which  water-puddled  ashes  and  tufa 
were  thrown.  Soon  after  the  elevation  and  deposit  of  the  igneous 
matter,  all  active  volcanic  action  must  have  ceased,  though  a  few 
half-smothered  outbursts  seem  to  have  occurred  very  recently  in- 
deed, for  on  Bobrovia  or  Otter  Island,  six  miles  southward  of  St. 
Paul,  is  the  fresh,  clearly  blown-out  throat,  with  the  fire-scorched 
and  smoked,  smooth,  sharp-cut,  funnel-like  walls  of  a  crater.  This 
is  the  only  place  on  the  Seal  Islands  where  there  are  any  evidences 
of  recent  discharges  from,  the  crater  of  a  volcano. 

Since  the  period  of  the  upheaval  of  the  group  under  discussion, 
the  sea  has  done  much  to  modify  and  even  enlarge  the  most  impor- 
tant one,  St.  Paul,  while  the  others,  St.  George  and  Otter,  being 
lifted  abruptly  above  the  power  of  water  and  ice  to  carry  and 
deposit  sand,  soil,  and  boulders,  are  but  little  changed  from  the 
condition  of  their  first  appearance. 


200  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

The  Russians  tell  a  somewhat  strange  story  in  connection  with 
Pribylov's  landing.  They  say  that  both  the  islands  were  at  first 
without  vegetation,  save  St.  Paul,  where  there  was  a  small  "  talneek," 
or  willow,  creeping  along  on  the  ground ;  and  that  on  St.  George 
nothing  grew,  not  even  grass,  except  on  the  place  where  the  car- 
casses of  dead  animals  rotted.  Then,  in  the  course  of  time,  both 
islands  became  covered  with  grass,  a  great  part  of  it  being  of  the 
sedge  kind,  Elymus.  This  record  of  Veniaminov,  however,  is 
scarcely  credible  ;  there  are  few,  surely,  who  will  not  question  the 
opinion  that  the  seals  antedated  the  vegetation,  for,  according  to  his 
own  statements,  these  creatures  were  there  then  in  the  same  im- 
mense numbers  that  we  find  them  to-day.  The  vegetation  on  these 
islands,  such  as  it  is,  is  fresh  and  luxuriant  during  the  growing  sea- 
son of  June  and  July  and  early  August,  but  the  beauty  and  eco- 
nomic value  of  trees  and  shrubbery,  of  cereals  and  vegetables,  are 
denied  to  them  by  climatic  conditions.  Still  I  am  strongly  inclined 
to  believe  that,  should  some  of  those  hardy  shrubs  and  spruce  trees 
indigenous  at  Sitka  or  Kadiak,  be  transplanted  properly  to  any  of 
the  southern  hill-slopes  of  St.  Paul  most  favored  by  soil,  drainage, 
and  bluffs,  for  shelter  from  saline  gales,  they  might  grow,  though  I 
know  that,  owing  to  the  lack  of  sunlight,  they  would  never  mature 
their  seed.  There  is,  however,  during  the  summer,  a  beautiful 
spread  of  grasses,  of  flowering  annuals,  biennials,  and  perennials,  of 
gayly-colored  lichens  and  crinkled  mosses,*  which  have  always  af- 
forded me  great  delight  whenever  I  have  pressed  my  way  over  the 
moors  and  up  the  hillsides  of  the  rookeries. 

There  are  ten  or  twelve  species  of  grasses  of  every  variety,  from 
close,  curly,  compact  mats  to  tall  stalks — tussocks  of  the  wild 
wheat,  Elymus  arenaria,  standing  in  favorable  seasons  waist  high — 
the  "  wheat  of  the  north  " — together  with  over  one  hundred  varie- 
ties of  annuals,  perennials,  sphagnum,  cryptogainic  plants,  etc.,  all 
flourishing  in  their  respective  positions,  and  covering  nearly  every 
point  of  rock,  tufa,  cement,  and  sand  that  a  plant  can  grow  upon, 
with  a  living  coat  of  the  greenest  of  all  greens — for  there  is  not 
sunlight  enough  there  to  ripen  any  perceptible  tinge  of  ochre-yel- 
low into  it — so  green  that  it  gives  a  deep  blue  tint  to  gray  noonday 
shadows,  contrasting  pleasantly  with  the  varying  russets,  reds, 

*  The  mosses  at  Kamminista,  St.  Paul,  are  the  finest  examples  of  theii 
kind  on  the  islands  ;  they  are  very  perfect,  and  many  species  are  beautiful. 


1 


UJ        > 

I! 

O         u 


I 

o    *** 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  201 

lemon-yellows,  and  grays  of  the  lichen-covered  rocks,  and  the 
brownish-purple  of  the  wild  wheat  on  the  sand-dune  tracts  in 
autumn,  together,  also,  with  innumerable  blue,  yellow,  pink,  and 
white  phaenogamous  blossoms,  everywhere  interspersed  over  the 
grassy  uplands  and  sandy  flats.  Occasionally,  on  looking  into  the 
thickest  masses  of  verdure,  our  common  wild  violet  will  be  found, 
while  the  phloxes  are  especially  bright  and  brilliant  here.  The 
flowers  of  one  species  of  gentian,  Gentiana  verna  are  very  marked 
in  their  beauty  ;  also  those  of  a  nasturtium,  and  a  creeping  pea- vine 
on  the  sand-dunes.  The  blossom  of  a  species  of  the  pulse  family 
is  the  only  one  here  that  emits  a  positive,  rich  perfume  ;  the 
others  are  more  suggestive  of  that  quality  than  expressive.  The 
most  striking  plant  in  all  of  a  long  list  is  the  Archangelica  offici- 
nalis,  with  its  tall  seed-stalks  and  broad  leaves,  which  grows  first 
in  spring  and  keeps  green  latest  in  the  fall.  The  luxuriant  rhu- 
barb-like stems  of  this  umbellifer,  after  they  have  made  their  rapid 
growth  in  June,  are  eagerly  sought  for  by  the  natives,  who  pull 
them  and  crunch  them  between  their  teeth  with  all  the  relish  that 
we  experience  in  eating  celery.  The  exhibition  of  ferns  at  Kam- 
minista,  St.  Paul,  during  the  summer  of  1872,  surpassed  anything 
that  I  ever  saw  :  I  recall  with  vivid  detail  the  exceedingly  fine  dis- 
play made  by  these  luxuriant  and  waving  fronds,  as  they  reared 
themselves  above  the  rough  interstices  of  that  rocky  ridge.  From 
the  fern  roots,  and  those  of  the  gentian,  the  natives  here  draw  their 
entire  stock  of  vegetable  medicines.  This  floral  display  on  St.  Paul 
is  very  much  more  extensive  and  conspicuous  than  that  on  St. 
George,  owing  to  the  absence  of  any  noteworthy  extent  of  warm 
sand-dune  country  on  the  latter  island. 

When  an  unusually  warm  summer  passes  over  the  Pribylov 
group,  followed  by  an  open  fall  and  a  mild  winter,  the  elymus 
ripens  its  seed,  and  stands  like  fields  of  uncut  grain  in  many  places 
along  the  north  shore  of  St.  Paul  and  around  the  village,  the  snow 
not  falling  enough  to  entirely  obliterate  it ;  but  it  is  seldom  allowed 
to  flourish  to  that  extent.  By  the  end  of  August  and  the  first  week 
of  September  of  normal  seasons,  the  small  edible  berries  of  Empe- 
trum  nigrum  and  Rubus  chamcemorus  are  ripe.  They  are  found  in 
considerable  quantities,  especially  at  "Zapadnie,"  on  both  islands, 
and,  as  everywhere  else  throughout  circumpolar  latitudes,  the 
former  is  small,  watery,  and  dark,  about  the  size  of  an  English  or 
black  currant ;  the  other  resembles  an  unripe  and  partially  decayed 


202  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

raspberry.  They  are,  however,  keenly  relished  by  the  natives,  and 
even  by  American  residents,  being  the  only  fruit  growing  upon 
the  islands.  Perhaps  no  one  plant  that  flowers  on  the  Seal  Islands 
is  more  conspicuous  and  abundant  than  is  the  Saxifraga  oppositofo- 
lia  ;  it  grows  over  all  localities,  rank  and  tall  in  rich  locations,  to 
stems  scarcely  one  inch  high  on  the  thin,  poor  soil  of  hill  summits 
and  sides,  densely  cespitose,  with  leaves  all  imbricated  in  four  rows  ; 
and  flowers  almost  sessile.  I  think  that  at  least  ten  well-defined 
species  of  the  order  Saxifragacece  exist  on  the  Pribylov  group. 
The  Eanunculacece  are  not  so  numerous  ;  but,  still,  a  buttercup  grow- 
ing in  every  low  slope  where  you  may  chance  to  wander  is  always 
a  pleasant  reminder  of  pastures  at  home ;  and,  also,  a  suggestion 
of  the  farm  is  constantly  made  by  the  luxuriant  inflorescence  of  the 
wild  mustard  (Cruciferce).  The  chickweeds  (Caryophyllacece)  are 
well  represented,  and  also  the  familiar  yellow  dandelion,  Taraxacum 
palustre.  Many  lichens  (Lichenes)  and  soft  mosses  (Musci)  are  in 
their  greatest  exuberance,  variety,  and  beauty  here  ;  and  myriads 
of  golden  poppies  (Papaveracece)  are  nodding  their  graceful  heads 
in  the  sweeping  of  the  winds — the  first  flowers  to  bloom,  and  the 
last  to  fade. 

The  chief  economic  value  rendered  by  the  botany  of  the  Pribylov 
Islands  to  the  natives  is  an  abundance  of  the  basket-making  rushes 
(Juncacece),  which  the  old  "barbies"  gather  in  the  margins  of 
many  of  the  lakes  and  pools. 

The  only  suggestion  of  a  tree*  found  growing  on  the  Pribylov 

*  That  spruce-trees  can  be  made  to  live  transplanted  from  indigenous  lo- 
calities to  the  barren  slopes  of  the  Aleutian  Islands,  has  been  demonstrated  ; 
but  in  living  these  trees  do  nothing  else,  and  scarcely  grow  to  any  appreciable 
degree.  A  few  spruce  were  transferred  to  Oonalashka  when  Veniaminov  was 
at  work  there  in  1830-35.  They  are  still  standing  and  keep  green,  but  the 
change  which  such  a  long  lapse  of  time  should  produce  by  growth  has  been 
as  difficult  to  determine  as  it  is  to  find  evidence  of  increased  altitude  to  the 
mountains  around  them  since  these  Sitkan  trees  were  planted  with  pious  hope 
at  their  feet  fifty  years  ago.  Though  I  can  readily  understand  why  the  sal- 
mon-berries of  Oonalashka  should  not  do  well  on  the  Seal  Islands  (though  I 
think  they  would  at  the  Garden  Cove  of  St.  George),  yet  I  believe  that 
the  huckleberries  of  that  section  would  thrive  at  many  places  if  carefully 
transplanted  to  these  localities :  the  southern  slopes  of  Cemetery  Ridge  at 
Zapadnie  ;  the  southern  slopes  of  Telegraph  Hill,  and  eastern  fall  of  Tolstoi 
peninsula  down  to  the  shore  of  the  lagoon.  They  might  also  do  well  set  out 
at  picked  places  around  the  Big  Lake  and  on  Northeast  Point,  around  the  little 
lake  thereon,.  If  these  bushes  really  throve  here,  they  would  be  the  meana 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  203 

group  is  the  hardy  "  talneek  "  or  creeping  willow  ;  there  are  three 
species  of  the  genus  Salix  found  here,  viz.,  reticulata,  polaris,  and 
arclica ;  the  first  named  is  the  most  common  and  of  largest  growth ; 
it  progresses  exactly  as  a  cucumber-vine  does  in  our  gardens  ;  as 
soon  as  it  has  made  from  the  seed  a  growth  of  six  inches  or  a  foot 
upright  from  the  soil,  then  it  droops  over  and  crawls  along  pros- 
trate upon  the  earth,  rocks,  and  sphagnum  ;  some  of  the  largest  tal- 
neek trunks  will  measure  eight  or  ten  feet  in  decumbent  length 
along  the  ground,  and  are  as  large  around  the  stump  as  an  average 
wrist  of  man.  The  usual  size,  however,  is  very,  very  much  less  ; 
while  the  stems  of  polaris  and  arctica  scarcely  ever  reach  the  diame- 
ter of  a  pencil  case,  or  the  procumbent  length  of  two  feet. 

Although  Rubus  chamcemorus  is  a  tree-shrub,  and  is  found  here 
very  commonly  distributed,  yet  it  grows  such  a  slender  diminutive 
bush,  that  it  gives  no  thought  whatever  of  its  being  anything  of 
the  sort.  Herbs,  grasses,  and  ferns  tower  above  it  on  all  sides. 

The  fungoid  growths  on  the  Pribylov  Islands  are  abundant  and 
varied,  especially  in  and  around  the  vicinity  of  the  rookeries  and 
the  killing-grounds.  On  the  west  slope  of  the  Black  bluffs  at  St. 
Paul  the  mushroom,  Agaricus  campestris,  was  gathered  in  the  sea- 
son of  1872  by  the  natives,  and  eaten  by  one  or  two  families  in  the 
village,  who  had  learned  to  cook  them  nicely  from  the  Kussians. 
These  Seal  Island  mushrooms  have  deeper  tones  of  pink  and  purple- 
red  in  their  gills  than  do  those  of  my  gathering  in  the  States.  I 
kicked  over  many  large  spherical  "  puff-balls  "  (Lycoperdce)  in  my 
tundra  walks  ;  myriads  of  smaller  ones  (Lycoperdon  cinereum  ?)  cover 
patches  near  the  spots  where  carcasses  have  long  since  rotted,  to- 
gether with  a  pale  gray  fungus  (Agaricus  fimiputris),  exceedingly 
delicate  and  frosted  exquisitely.  Some  ligneous  fungi  (Clacaria), 
will  be  found  attached  to  the  decaying  stems  of  Salix  reticulata 
(creeping  willows).  The  irregularity  of  the  annual  growing  of  the 
agarics,  and  their  rapid  growth  when  they  do  appear,  makes  their 

of  adding  greatly  to  the  comfort  of  the  inhabitants  ;  for  the  Oonalashka  huckle- 
berry is  an  exceeding  pleasant,  juicy  fruit,  large  and  well  adapted  for  canning 
and  preserving.  Having  less  sunshine  here  than  at  Illoolook,  it  may  not  ripen 
up  as  well  flavored,  but  will,  I  think,  succeed.  The  roots  of  the  bushes  when 
brought  up  from  Oonalashka  in  April  or  early  May  should  be  kept  moist  by 
wet-moss  wrappings  from  the  moment  they  are  first  taken  up  until  they  are 
reset,  with  the  tops  well  pruned  back,  on  the  Pribylov  Islands.  The  experi- 
ment is  surely  worth  all  the  trouble  of  making,  and  I  hope  it  will  be  done. 


204  OUR    ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

determination  excessively  difficult ;  they  are  as  unstable  in  their 
visits  as  are  several  of  the  Lepidoptera.  The  cool  humidity  of  cli- 
mate during  the  summer  season  oh  the  Pribylov  Islands  is  espe- 
cially adapted  to  that  mysterious,  but  beautiful  growth  of  these 
plants — the  apotheosis  of  decay.  The  coloring  of  several  varieties 
is  very  bright  and  attractive,  shading  from  a  purplish-scarlet  to  a 
pallid  white. 

A  great  many  attempts  have  been  made,  both  here  and  at  St. 
George,  to  raise  a  few  of  the  hardy  vegetables.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  growing  lettuce,  turnips,  and  radishes  on  the  Island  of  St. 
Paul,  nothing  has  been  or  can  be  done.  On  the  south  shore  of  St. 
George,  and  at  the  foot  of  a  mural  bluff,  is  a  little  patch  of  ground 
less  in  area  than  one-sixteenth  of  an  acre,  which  appears  to  be  so 
drained  and  so  warmed  by  the  rarely-reflected  sunlight  from  this 
cliff,  every  ray  of  which  seems  to  be  gathered  and  radiated  from  the 
rocks,  as  to  allow  the  production  of  fair  turnips  ;  and  at  one  season 
there  were  actually  raised  potatoes  as  large  as  walnuts.  Gardening, 
however,  on  either  island  involves  so  much  labor  and  so  much  care, 
with  so  poor  a  return,  that  it  has  been  discontinued.  It  is  a  great 
deal  better,  and  a  great  deal  easier,  to  have  the  "  truck  "  come  up 
once  a  year  from  San  Francisco  on  the  steamer. 

There  is  one  comfort  which  nature  has  vouchsafed  to  civilized 
man  on  these  islands.  There  are  very  few  indigenous  insects.  A 
large  flesh-fly,  Bombylius  major,  appears  during  the  summer  and 
settles  in  a  striking  manner  on  the  backs  of  quiet,  loafing  natives, 
or  strings  itself  in  rows  of  millions  upon  the  long  grass-blades 
which  flourish  about  the  killing-grounds,  especially  on  the  leaf-stalks 
of  an  elymus,  causing  this  vegetation,  over  the  whole  slaughtering- 
field  and  vicinity,  to  fairly  droop  to  earth  as  if  beaten  down  by  a 
tornado  of  wind  and  rain.  It  makes  the  landscape  look  as  though 
it  had  moulded  over  night,  and  the  fungoid  spores  were  blue  and 
gray.  Our  common  house-fly  is  not  present ;  I  never  saw  one  while 
I  was  up  there.  The  flesh-flies  which  I  have  just  mentioned  never 
came  into  the  dwellings  unless  by  accident :  the  natives  say  they  do 
not  annoy  them,  and  I  did  not  notice  any  disturbance  among  the 
few  animals  which  the  resident  company  had  imported  for  beef  and 
for  service. 

Then,  again,  this  is  perhaps  the  only  place  in  all  Alaska  where 
man,  primitive  and  civilized,  is  not  cursed  by  mosquitoes.  There 
are  none  here.  A  gnat,  that  is  disagreeably  suggestive  of  the  real 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  205 

enemy  just  referred  to,  flits  about  in  large  swarms,  but  it  is  inoffen- 
sive, and  seeks  shelter  in  the  grass.  Several  species  of  beetles  are 
also  numerous  here.  One  of  them,  the  famous  green  and  gold 
"carabus,"  is  exceedingly  common,  crawling  everywhere,  and  is 
just  as  bright  in  the  rich  bronzing  of  its  wing-shields  as  are  its 
famous  prototypes  of  Brazil  One  or  two  species  of  Itemosa,  a 
Cymindis,  several  representatives  of  the  Aphidiphaga,  one  or  two  of 
Dytiscidce,  three  or  four  Cicindelidce — these  are  nearly  all  that  I 
found.  A  single  dragon-fly,  Perla  bicaudata,  flitted  over  the  lakes 
and  ponds  of  St.  Paul.  The  familiar  form  to  our  eyes,  of  the  bum- 
ble-bee, Bombus  borealis,  passing  from  flower  to  flower,  was  rarely 
seen  ;  but  a  few  are  here  resident.  The  Hydrocorisce  occur  in  great 
abundance,  skipping  over  the  water  in  the  lakes  and  pools  every- 
where, and  a  very  few  species  of  butterflies,  principally  the  yellow 
Nymphalidce,  are  represented  by  numerous  individuals. 

Aside  from  the  seal-life  on  the  Pribylov  Islands,  there  is  no  in- 
digenous mammalian  creature,  with  the  exception  of  the  blue  and 
white  foxes,  Vulpes  lagopus*  and  a  lemming,  Myodes  obensis.  The 
latter  is  restricted,  for  some  reason  or  other,  to  the  Island  of  Si 
George,  where  it  is,  or  at  least  was,  in  1874,  very  abundant.  Its 


*  Blue  foxes  were  also,  and  are,  natives  of  the  Commander  Islands.  Stel- 
ler  describes  their  fearlessness  when  the  shipwrecked  crew  of  the  St.  Peter 
landed  there,  November  6,  1741. 

In  regard  to  these  foxes  the  Pribylov  natives  declare  that  when  the  islands 
were  first  occupied  by  their  ancestors,  1786-87,  the  fur  was  invariably  blue  ; 
that  the  present  smoky  blue,  or  ashy  indigo  color,  is  due  to  the  coming  of 
white  foxes  across  on  the  ice  from  the  mainland  to  the  eastward.  The  white- 
furred  mdpes  is  quite  numerous  on  the  islands  to-day.  I  should  judge  that 
perhaps  one-fifth  of  the  whole  number  were  of  this  color ;  they  do  not  live 
apart  from  the  blue  ones,  but  evidently  breed  "in  and  in."  I  notice  that 
Veniaminov,  also,  makes  substantially  the  same  statement ;  only  differing  by 
charging  this  deterioration  of  the  blue  foxes'  fur  to  a  deportation  from  out- 
side of  red  foxes,  on  ice-floes,  and  adds  that  the  natives  always  hunted  down 
these  "krassnie  peeschee  "  as  soon  as  their  presence  was  known;  hence  my 
inability,  perhaps,  to  see  any  sign  of  their  posterity  in  1872-76. 

The  presence  of  these  animals  on  the  Pribylov  Islands  is  a  real  source  of 
happiness  to  the  natives,  especially  so  to  the  younger  ones.  The  little  pup- 
foxes  make  pets  and  playfellows  for  the  children,  while  hunting  the  adults 
during  the  winter  gives  wholesome  employment  to  the  mind  and  body  of  the 
native  who  does  so.  They  are  trapped  in  common  dead-falls,  steel  spring- 
clips,  or  beaver  traps,  and  shot.  A  very  large  portion  of  the  gossip  on  the 
islands  is  in  relation  to  this  business. 


206  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

burrows  and  paths,  under  and  among  the  grassy  hummocks  and 
mossy  flats,  checkered  every  square  rod  of  land  there  covered  with 
this  vegetation.  Although  the  Island  of  St.  Paul  is  but  twenty-nine 
or  thirty  miles  to  the  northwest,  not  a  single  one  of  these  active, 
curious  little  animals  is  found  there,  nor  could  I  learn  from  the 
natives  that  it  had  ever  been  seen  there.  The  foxes  are  also  re- 
stricted to  these  islands  ;  that  is,  their  kind,  which  are  not  found 
elsewhere,  except  the  stray  examples  on  St.  Matthew  seen  by  my- 
self, and  those  which  are  carefully  domesticated  and  preserved  at 
Attoo,  the  extreme  westernmost  land  of  the  Aleutian  chain.  These 
animals  find  comfortable  holes  for  their  accommodation  and  retreat 
on  the  Seal  Islands,  among  the  countless  chinks  and  crevices  of  the 
basaltic  formation.  They  feed  and  grow  fat  upon  sick  and  weakly 
seals,  also  devouring  many  of  the  pups,  and  they  vary  this  diet  by 
water-fowl  and  eggs*  during  the  summer,  returning  for  their  sub- 
sistence during  the  long  winter  to  the  bodies  of  seals  upon  the 
breeding-grounds  and  the  skinned  carcasses  left  upon  the  killing- 
fields.  Were  they  not  regularly  hunted  from  December  until  April, 
when  their  fur  is  in  its  prime  beauty  and  condition,  they  would 
swarm  like  the  lemming  on  St.  George,  and  perhaps  would  soon  be 
obliged  to  eat  one  another.  The  natives,  however,  thin  them  out 
by  incessant  trapping  and  shooting  during  the  period  when  the 
seals  are  away  from  the  islands. 

The  Pribylov  group  is  as  yet  free  from  rats ;  at  least  none  have 


*  The  temerity  of  the  fox  is  wonderful  to  contemplate,  as  it  goes  on  a  full 
run  or  stealthy  tread  up  and  down  and  along  the  faces  of  almost  inaccessible 
bluffs,  in  search  of  old  and  young  birds  and  their  nests  and  eggs,  for  which  the 
"peeschee"  have  a  keen  relish.  The  fox  always  brings  an  egg  up  in  its 
mouth,  and,  carrying  it  back  a  few  feet  from  the  brink  of  the  precipice,  lei- 
surely and  with  gusto  breaks  the  larger  end  and  sucks  the  contents  from  the 
shell.  One  of  the  curious  sights  of  my  notice,  in  this  connection,  was  the  sly, 
artful,  and  insidious  advances  of  Reynard  at  Tolstoi  Mees,  St.  George,  where, 
conspicuous  and  elegant  in  its  fluffy  white  dress,  it  cunningly  stretched  on  its 
back  as  though  dead,  making  no  sign  of  life  whatever,  save  to  gently  hoist  its 
thick  brush  now  and  then  ;  whereupon  many  dull,  curious  sea-birds,  Graculus 
bicristatits,  in  their  intense  desire  to  know  all  about  it,  flew  in  narrowing  cir- 
cles overhead,  lower  and  lower,  closer  and  closer,  until  one  of  them  came 
within  the  sure  reach  of  a  sudden  spring  and  a  pair  of  quick  snapping  jaws, 
while  the  gulls  and  others,  rising  safe  and  high  above,  screamed  out  in  seem- 
ing contempt  for  the  struggles  of  the  unhappy  "  shag,"  and  rendered  hideous 
approbation. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  207 

got  off  from  the  ships.  There  is  no  harbor  on  either  of  these 
islands,  and  vessels  lie  out  in  the  roadstead,  so  far  from  land  that 
those  pests  do  not  venture  to  swim  to  the  shore.  Mice  were  long 
ago  brought  to  shore  in  ships'  cargoes,  and  they  are  a  great  nui- 
sance to  the  white  people  as  well  as  the  natives  throughout  the 
islands.  Hence  cats  also  are  abundant  Nowhere,  perhaps,  in  the 
wide  world  are  such  cats  to  be  seen  as  these.  The  tabby  of  our 
acquaintance,  when  she  goes  up  there  and  lives  upon  the  seal-meat 
spread  everywhere  under  her  nose,  is  metamorphosed,  by  time  of 
the  second  generation,  into  a  stubby  feline  ball  In  other  words, 
she  becomes  thickened,  short,  and  loses  part  of  the  normal  length 
of  her  tail ;  also  her  voice  is  prolonged  and  resonant  far  beyond  the 
misery  which  she  inflicts  upon  our  ears  here.  These  cats  actually 
swarm  about  the  natives'  houses,  never  in  them  much,  for  only  a 
tithe  of  their  whole  number  can  be  made  pets  of ;  but  they  do  make 
night  hideous  beyond  all  description.  They  repair  for  shelter  often 
to  the  chinks  of  precipices  and  bluffe ;  but  although  not  exactly 
wild,  yet  they  cannot  be  approached  or  cajoled.  The  natives,  when 
their  sluggish  wits  are  periodically  aroused  and  thoroughly  dis- 
turbed by  the  volume  of  cat-calls  in  their  village,  sally  out  and  by  a 
vigorous  effort  abate  the  nuisance  for  the  time  being.  Only  the 
most  fiendish  caterwauling  will  or  can  arouse  this  Aleutian  ire. 

On  account  of  the  severe  climatic  conditions  it  is,  of  course,  im- 
practicable to  keep  stock  here  with  any  profit  or  pleasure.  The 
experiment  has  been  tried  faithfully.  It  is  found  best  to  bring 
beef-cattle  up  in  the  spring  on  the  steamer,  turn  them  out  to  past- 
ure until  the  close  of  the  season  in  October  and  November,  and 
then,  if  the  snow  comes,  to  kill  them  and  keep  the  carcasses  refrig- 
erated until  consumed.  Stock  cannot  be  profitably  raised  here  ;  the 
proportion  of  severe  weather  annually  is  too  great  From  three  to 
perhaps  six  months  of  every  year  they  require  feeding  and  water- 
ing, with  good  shelter.  To  furnish  an  animal  with  hay  and  grain 
up  there  is  a  costly  matter,  and  the  dampness  of  the  growing  sum- 
mer season  on  both  islands  renders  hay-making  impracticable. 
Perhaps  a  few  head  of  hardy  Siberian  cattle  might  pick  up  a  living 
on  the  north  shore  of  St.  Paul,  among  the  grasses  and  sand-dunes 
there,  with  nothing  more  than  shelter  and  water  given  them  ;  but 
they  would  need  both  of  these  attentions.  Then  the  care  of  them 
would  hardly  return  expenses,  as  the  entire  grazing-ground  could 
not  support  any  number  of  animals.  It  is  less  than  two  square 


208  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

miles  in  extent,  and  half  of  this  area  is  unproductive.  Then,  too, 
a  struggle  for  existence  would  reduce  the  flesh  and  vitality  of  these 
cattle  to  so  low  an  ebb  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  could  be 
put  through  another  winter  alive,  especially  if  severe.  I  was  then 
and  am  now  strongly  inclined  to  think  that  if  a  few  of  those  Sibe- 
rian reindeer  could  be  brought  over  to  St.  Paul  and  to  St.  George 
they  would  make  a  very  successful  struggle  for  existence,  and  be 
a  source  of  a  good  supply,  summer  and  winter,  of  fresh  meat  for 
the  agents  of  the  Government  and  the  company  who  may  be  living 
upon  the  islands.  I  do  not  think  that  they  would  be  inclined  to 
molest  or  visit  the  seal- grounds  ;  at  least,  I  noticed  that  the  cattle 
and  mules  of  the  company  running  loose  on  St.  Paul  were  careful 
never  to  poke  around  on  the  outskirts  of  a  rookery,  and  deer  would 
be  more  timid  and  less  obtrusive  than  our  domesticated  animals. 
But  I  did  notice  on  St.  George  that  a  little  squad  of  sheep,  brought 
up  and  turned  out  there  for  a  summer's  feeding,  seemed  to  be  so 
attracted  by  the  quiet  calls  of  the  pups  on  the  rookeries  that  they 
were  drawn  to  and  remained  by  the  seals  without  disturbing  them 
at  all,  to  their  own  physical  detriment,  for  they  lost  better  pastur- 
age by  so  doing.  The  natives  of  St.  Paul  have  a  strange  passion 
for  seal-fed  pork,  and  there  are  quite  a  large  number  of  pigs  on 
the  Island  of  St.  Paul  and  a  few  on  St.  George.  Such  hogs  soon 
become  entirely  carnivorous,  living,  to  the  practical  exclusion  of  all 
other  diet,  on  the  carcasses  of  seals. 

Chickens  are  kept  with  great  difficulty.  In  fact,  it  is  only  pos- 
sible to  save  their  lives  when  the  natives  take  them  into  their  own 
rooms  or  keep  them  over  their  heads,  in  their  dwellings,  during 
winter. 

While  the  great  exhibition  of  pinnipedia  preponderates  over 
every  other  feature  of  animal  life  at  the  Seal  Islands,  still  there  is  a 
wonderful  aggregate  of  ornithological  representation  thereon.  The 
spectacle  of  birds  nesting  and  breeding,  as  they  do  on  St.  George 
Island,  to  the  number  of  millions,  flecking  those  high  basaltic  bluffs 
of  its  shore-line,  twenty-nine  miles  in  length,  with  color-patches  of 
black,  brown,  and  white,  as  they  perch  or  cling  to  the  mural  cliffs 
in  the  labor  of  incubation,  is  a  sight  of  exceeding  attraction  and 
constant  novelty.  It  affords  a  naturalist  an  opportunity  of  a  life- 
time for  minute  investigation  into  all  the  details  of  the  reproduc- 
tion of  these  vast  flocks  of  circumboreal  water-fowl.  The  Island  of 
St.  Paul,  owing  to  the  low  character  of  its  shore-line,  a  large  pro- 


£ 

•7. 

_S 

</>     'S 
uj     ^ 

I 

i  S. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  209 

portion  of  which  is  but  slightly  elevated  above  the  sea  and  is  sandy, 
is  not  visited  and  cannot  be  visited  by  such  myriads  of  birds  as  are 
seen  at  St.  George  ;  but  the  small  rocky  Walrus  Islet  is  fairly  cov- 
ered with  sea-fowls,  and  the  Otter  Island  bluffs  are  crowded  by 
them  to  their  utmost  capacity  of  reception.  The  birds  string  them- 
selves anew  around  the  bluffs  with  every  succeeding  season,  like 
endless  ribbons  stretched  across  their  rugged  faces,  while  their 
numbers  are  simply  countless.  The  variety  is  not  great,  however, 
in  these  millions  of  breeding-birds.  It  consists  of  only  ten  or 
twelve  names,  and  the  whole  list  of  birds  belonging  to  the  Pribylov 
Islands,  stragglers  and  migratory,  contains  but  forty  species.  Con- 
spicuous among  the  last-named  class  is  the  robin,  a  straggler  which 
was  brought  from  the  mainland,  evidently  against  its  own  effort,  by 
a  storm  or  a  gale  of  wind,  which  also  brings  against  their  will  the 
solitary  hawks,  owls,  and  waders  occasionally  noticed  here. 

After  the  dead  silence  of  a  long  ice-bound  winter,  the  arrival  of 
large  flocks  of  those  sparrows  of  the  north,  the  "choochkies,"  Pha- 
leris  microceros,  is  most  cheerful  and  interesting.  These  plump 
little  auks  are  bright,  fearless,  vivacious  birds,  with  bodies  round 
and  fat.  They  come  usually  in  chattering  flocks  on  or  immediately 
after  May  1st,  and  are  caught  by  the  people  with  hand- scoops  or 
dip-nets  to  any  number  that  may  be  required  for  the  day's  con- 
sumption, their  tiny,  rotund  forms  making  pies  of  rare  savory  vir- 
tue, and  being  also  baked  and  roasted  and  stewed  in  every  con- 
ceivable shape  by  skilful  cooks.  Indeed,  they  are  equal  to  the 
reed-birds  of  the  South.  These  welcome  visitors  are  succeeded 
along  about  July  20th  by  large  flocks  of  fat,  red-legged  turn-stones, 
Strepsilas  interpres,  which  come  in  suddenly  from  the  west  or  north, 
where  they  have  been  breeding,  and  stop  on  the  islands  for  a  month 
or  six  weeks,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  feed  luxuriantly  upon  the  flesh- 
flies,  which  we  have  just  noticed,  and  their  eggs.  These  handsome 
birds  go  in  among  the  seals,  familiarly  chasing  the  flies,  gnats,  etc. 
They  are  followed  as  they  leave  in  September  by  several  species  of 
jack-snipe  and  a  plover,  Trinya  and  Charadrius.  These,  however, 
soon  depart,  as  early  as  the  end  of  October  and  the  beginning  of 
November,  and  then  winter  fairly  closes  in  upon  the  islands.  The 
loud,  roaring,  incessant  seal-din,  together  with  the  screams  and 
darkening  flight  of  innumerable  water-fowl,  are  replaced  in  turn 
again  by  absolute  silence,  marking  out,  as  it  were,  in  lines  of  sharp 
and  vivid  contrast,  summer's  life  and  winter's  death. 
14 


210  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

The  author  of  that  quaint  old  saying,  "Birds  of  a  feather  flock 
together,"  might  well  have  gained  his  inspiration  had  he  stood 
under  the  high  bluffs  of  St.  George  at  any  season,  prehistoric  or 
present,  during  the  breeding  of  the  water-birds  there,  where 
myriads  of  croaking  murres  and  flocks  of  screaming  gulls  darken 
the  light  of  day  with  their  fluttering  forms,  and  deafen  the  ear  with 
their  shrill,  harsh  cries  as  they  do  now,  for  music  is  denied  to  all 
those  birds  of  the  sea.  Still,  in  spite  of  the  apparent  confusion,  he 
would  have  taken  cognizance  of  the  fact  that  each  species  had  its 
particular  location  and  kept  to  its  own  boundary,  according  to  the 
precision  of  natural  law.  The  dreary  expanse  and  lonely  solitudes 
of  the  North  owe  their  chief  enlivenment,  and  their  principal  attrac- 
tiveness for  man,  to  the  presence  of  those  vast  flocks  of  circumbo- 
real  water-fowl,  which  repair  thither  annually. 

Over  fifteen  miles  of  the  bold,  basaltic,  bluff  line  of  St.  George 
Island  is  fairly  covered  with  nesting  gulls  (Eissa)  and  "arries" 
( Uria),  while  down  in  the  countless  chinks  and  holes  over  the  en- 
tire surface  of  the  north  side  of  this  island  millions  of  "  chooch- 
kies  "  (Simorhyncus  microceros)  breed,  filling  the  air  and  darkening 
the  light  of  day  with  their  cries  and  fluttering  forms.  On  Walrus 
Islet  the  nests  of  the  great  white  gull  of  the  north  (Larus  glaucus) 
can  be  visited  and  inspected,  as  well  as  those  of  the  sea-parrot  or 
puffin  (Fratercula),  shags  or  cormorants  (Graculus),  and  the  red- 
legged  kittiwake  (Larus  brevirostris).  These  birds  are  accessible 
on  every  side,  can  be  reached,  and  afford  the  observer  an  unequalled 
opportunity  of  taking  due  notice  of  them  through  the  breeding- 
season  of  their  own,  as  it  begins  in  May  and  continues  until  the 
end  of  September. 

Not  one  of  the  water-birds  found  on  and  around  the  islands  is 
exempted  from  a  place  in  the  native's  larder ;  even  the  delectable 
"  oreelie  "  are  unhesitatingly  eaten  by  the  people,  and  indeed  these 
birds  furnish,  during  the  winter  season  in  especial,  an  almost  cer- 
tain source  of  supply  for  fresh  meat.  But  the  heart  of  the  Aleut 
swells  to  its  greatest  gastronomic  happiness  when  he  can  repair,  in 
the  months  of  June  and  July,  to  the  basaltic  cliffs  of  St.  George,  or 
the  lava  table-bed  of  Walrus  Islet,  and  lay  his  grimy  hands  on 
the  gayly-colored  eggs  of  the  "arrie"  (Lomvia  arm)  ;  and  if  he 
were  not  the  most  improvident  of  men,  instead  of  taking  only 
enough  for  the  day,  he  would  lay  up  a  great  store  for  the  morrow, 
but  he  never  does.  On  the  occasion  of  one  visit,  and  my  first  one 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  211 

there,  July  5,  1872,  six  men  loaded  a  bidarrah  at  Walrus  Islet, 
capable  of  carrying  four  tons,  exclusive  of  our  crew,  down  to  the 
water's  edge  with  eggs,  in  less  than  three  working  hours.* 

During  winter  months  these  birds  are  almost  wholly  absent, 
especially  so  if  ice-floes  shall  have  closed  in  around  the  islands ; 
then  there  is  nothing  of  the  feathered  kind  save  a  stupid  shag  (P. 
bicristatus)  as  it  clings  to  the  leeward  cliffs,  or  the  great  burgo- 
master gull,  which  sweeps  in  circling  flight  high  overhead ;  but, 
early  in  May  they  begin  to  make  their  first  appearance,  and  they 
come  up  from  the  sea  overnight,  as  it  were,  their  chattering  and 
their  harsh  carolling  waking  the  natives  from  slothful  sleeping, 
which,  however,  they  gladly  break,  to  seize  their  nets  and  live 
life  anew,  as  far  as  eating  is  concerned.  The  stress  of  severe 
weather  in  the  winter  months,  the  driving  of  the  snow  "boorgas," 
and  the  floating  ice-fields  closing  in  to  shut  out  the  open  water,  are 
cause  enough  for  a  disappearance  of  all  water-fowl,  pro  tern. 

Again,  the  timid  traveller  here  is  delighted  ;  he  has  been  re- 

*  Using  the  egg  of  our  domestic  fowl,  the  hen,  as  a  standard,  the  following 
note  made  in  regard  to  the  size  and  quality  of  the  eggs  of  the  sea-birds  of  these 
waters  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  many.  When  daily  served  on  St.  George, 
during  June  and  July,  with  eggs  of  indigenous  sea-fowl,  I  recorded  my  gas- 
tronomic comparisons  which  occurred  then  as  I  ate  them.  Here  follows  a  re- 
capitulation : 

Fresh-laid  eggs  of  "lupus,"  or  F.  glacialis :  Best  eggs  known  to  the 
islands;  can  be  soft-boiled  or  fried,  etc.,  and  are  as  good  as  our  own  hens' 
eggs  ;  the  yolk  is  light  and  clear  ;  the  size  thereof  is  in  shape  and  bulk  like  a 
duck's  egg  ;  it  has  a  white  shelL  Season  :  June  1st  to  15th,  inclusive  ;  scarce 
on  St.  Paul,  and  not  abundant  on  St.  George. 

Fresh-laid  eggs  of  "  arrie,"  or  L.  arra :  Very  good  ;  can  be  soft-boiled  or 
fried  ;  are  best  scrambled  ;  yolks  are  dark  ;  no  strange  taste  whatever  to  them  ; 
pyriform  in  shape  ;  large  as  a  goose-egg  ;  shell  gayly-colored  ;  they  are  exceed- 
ingly abundant  on  Walrus  Island  and  St.  George ;  tons  of  them.  Season  : 
June  25th  to  July  10th,  inclusive. 

Fresh-laid  eggs  of  gulls,  LaridoB :  Perceptibly  strong  ;  cannot  be  relished 
unless  in  omelettes  ;  yolks  very  dark  ;  size  and  shape  of  our  hen's  egg  ;  shell 
dark,  clay-colored  ground,  mottled.  Season :  June  5th  to  July  20th,  inclusive  ; 
they  are  in  moderate  supply  only.  The  other  eggs  in  the  list,  such  as  those 
of  the  *'  choochkie,"  the  "  shag, "and  the  several  varieties  of  water-fowl  which 
breed  here,  are  never  secured  in  sufficient  quantity  to  be  of  any  consideration 
as  articles  of  diet.  It  is,  perhaps,  better  that  a  scarcity  of  their  kind  continue, 
judging  from  the  strong  smack  of  the  choochkie's,  the  repulsive  taint  of  the 
shag's,  and  the  "twang  ''  of  the  sea-parrot  s,  all  of  which  I  tasted  as  a  matter 
of  investigation. 


212 


OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 


lieved  of  the  great  Alaskan  curse  of  mosquitoes  :  he  also  walks  the 
moors  and  hillsides  secure  in  never  finding  a  reptile  of  any  sort 
whatever — no  snakes,  no  lizards,  no  toads  or  frogs — nothing  of  the 
sort  to  be  found  on  the  Seal  Islands. 

Fish  are  scarce  in  the  vicinity  of  these  islands.  Only  a  few  rep- 
resentatives of  those  families  which  can  secrete  themselves  with  rare 
cunning  are  safe  in  visiting  the  Pribylovs  in  summer.  Naturally 
enough,  the  finny  tribes  avoid  the  seal-churned  waters  for  at  least 
one  hundred  miles  around.  Among  a  few  specimens,  however,  which 


Aleutes  catching  Halibut,  Akootan  Pass,  Bering  Sea. 

I  collected,  three  or  four  species  new  to  natural  science  were  found, 
and  have  since  been  named  by  experts  in  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 
The  presence  of  such  great  numbers  of  amphibian  mammalia 
about  the  waters  during  five  or  six  months  of  every  year  renders 
all  fishing  abortive,  and  unless  expeditions  are  made  seven  or  eight 
miles  at  least  from  the  land,  unless  you  desire  to  catch  large  hali- 
but, it  is  a  waste  of  time  to  cast  your  line  over  the  gunwale"  of  the 
boat.  The  natives  capture  "poltoos"  or  halibut,  Hippoglossus  vul- 
garis,  within  two  or  three  miles  of  the  reef -point  on  St.  Paul  and 
the  south  shore  during  July  and  August.  After  this  season  the 
weather  is  usually  so  stormy  and  cold  that  fishermen  venture  no 
more  until  the  ensuing  summer.  * 

*  The  St.  George  natives  have  caught  codfish  just  off  the  Tolstoi  Head 
early  in  June  ;  but  it  is  a  rare  occurrence.     By  going  out  two  or  three  miles 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  213 

With  regard  to  the  Mollusca  of  the  Pribylov  waters,  the  charac- 
teristic forms  of  Toxoglossata  and  Rhachiglossata  peculiar  to  this 
north  latitude  are  most  abundant ;  of  the  Cephalopoda  I  have  seen 
only  a  species  of  squid,  sepia,  or  loligo.  The  clustering  whelks  (Buc- 
cinum)  literally  conceal  large  areas  of  the  boulders  on  the  beaches 
here  and  there.  They  are  in  immense  numbers,  and  are  crushed 
under  your  foot  at  almost  every  step  when  you  pass  over  long 
reaches  of  rocky  shingle  at  low  tide.  A  few  of  the  Neptunea  are 
found,  and  the  live  and  dead  shells  of  Limacina  are  in  great  abun- 
dance wherever  the  floating  kelp-beds  afford  them  shelter. 

On  land  a  very  large  number  of  shells  of  the  genera  Succinea 
and  Pupa  abound  all  over  the  islands.  On  the  bluffs  of  St.  George, 
just  over  Garden  Cove,  I  gathered  a  beautiful  Helix. 

The  little  fresh-water  lakes  and  ponds  contain  a  great  quantity 
of  representatives  of  the  characteristic  genera  Planorbis,  Melania, 
Limnea,  and  that  pretty  little  bivalve,  the  Cyclas. 

Of  the  Crustacea,  the  Annelidas,  and  Echinodermata,  there  is 
abundant  representation  here.  The  sea-urchins,  "  repkie  "  of  the 
natives,  are  eagerly  sought  for  at  low  tide  and  eaten  raw  by  them. 
The  arctic  sea-clam,  Mya  truncata,  is  once  in  a  long  time  found 
here  (it  is  the  chief  food  of  the  walrus  of  Alaska),  and  the  species 
of  Mytilus,  the  mussels,  so  abundant  in  the  Aleutian  archipelago, 
are  almost  absent  here  at  St.  Paul  and  only  sparingly  found  at  St. 
George.  Frequently  the  natives  have  brought  a  dish  of  sea-urchins' 
viscera  for  our  table,  offering  it  as  a  great  delicacy.  I  do  not  think 
any  of  us  did  more  than  to  taste  it.  The  native  women  are  the 
chief  hunters  for  echinoidae,  and  during  the  whole  spring  and  sum- 
mer seasons  they  will  be  seen  at  both  islands,  wading  in  the  pools 
at  low  water,  with  their  scanty  skirts  high  up,  eagerly  laying  pos- 
sessive hands  upon  every  "  bristling  egg  "  that  shows  itself.  They 

from  the  village  at  either  island  during  July  and  August  the  native  fisherman 
usually  captures  large  halibut — not  in  abundance,  however.  The  St.  Paul 
people,  as  well  as  their  relatives  on  St  George,  fish  in  small  "  two-hole  "  bi- 
darkies.  They  go  out  together  in  squads  of  four  to  six.  One  man  alone  in 
the  kyack  is  not  able  to  secure  a  "  bolshoi  poltoos."  The  method,  when  the 
halibut  is  hooked,  is  to  call  for  your  nearest  neighbor  in  his  bidarka,  who 
paddles  swiftly  up.  You  extend  your  paddle  to  him,  retaining  your  own 
hold,  and  he  grasps  it,  while  you  seize  his  in  turn,  thus  making  it  impossible 
to  capsize,  while  the  large  and  powerfully  struggling  fish  is  brought  to  the 
surface  between  the  canoes  and  knocked  on  the  head.  It  is  then  towed  ashore 
and  carried  in  triumph  to  its  lucky  captor's  house. 


214  OUK   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

vary  this  search  by  poking,  with  a  short-handled  hook,  into  holes 
and  rocky  crevices  for  a  small  cottoid  fish,  which  is  also  found  here 
at  low  water  in  this  manner.  Specimens  of  this  cottoid  which  I 
brought  down  declared  themselves  as  representatives  of  a  new  de- 
parture from  all  other  recognized  forms  in  which  the  sculpin  is 
known  to  sport ;  hence  the  name,  generic  and  specific.  The  "  sand- 
cake,"  echinarachinus,  is  also  very  common  here. 

By  May  28th  to  the  middle  of  June  a  fine  table-crab,  large,  fat, 
and  sweet,  with  a  light,  brittle  shell,  is  taken  while  it  is  skurrying 
in  and  out  of  the  lagoon  as  the  tide  ebbs  and  flows.  It  is  the  best- 
flavored  crustacean  known  to  Alaskan  waters.  They  are  taken  no- 
where else  at  St.  Paul,  and  when  on  St.  George  I  failed  to  see  one. 
I  am  not  certain  as  to  the  accuracy  of  the  season  of  running,  viz.  : 
May  28th  to  June  15th,  inasmuch  as  one  of  my  little  note-books 
on  which  this  date  is  recorded  turns  out  to  be  missing  at  the  pres- 
ent writing,  and  I  am  obliged  to  give  it  from  memory.  The  only 
economic  shell-fish  which  the  islands  afford  is  embodied  in  this 
Chionoecetes  opilio  (?).  The  natives  aflirm  an  existence  of  mussels 
here  in  abundance  when  the  Pribylov  group  was  first  discovered ; 
but  now  only  a  small  supply  of  inferior  size  and  quality  is  to  be 
found. 

With  reference  to  the  jelly-fishes,  Medusce,  which  are  so  abun- 
dant in  the  waters  around  these  islands,  their  exceeding  number  and 
variety  and  beauty  startled  and  enchanted  me.  An  enormous  ag- 
gregate of  these  creatures,  some  of  them  exquisitely  delicate  and 
translucent,  ride  in  and  out  of  the  lagoon  at  St.  Paul  when  the 
spring-tides  flow  and  ebb.  Myriads  of  them  are  annually  stranded, 
to  decay  on  the  sandy  flats  of  this  estuary. 

As  to  sea-weeds,  or  mosses, — the  extent,  luxuriance,  variety,  and 
beauty  of  the  algse  forests  of  those  waters  of  Bering  Sea  which 
lave  the  coasts  of  the  Pribylov  Islands,  call  for  more  detail  of  de- 
scription than  space  in  this  volume  will  allow,  since  anything  like  a 
fair  presentation  of  the  subject  would  require  the  reproduction  of 
my  water-colored  drawings.  After  all  heavier  gales,  especially  the 
southeasters  in  October,  if  a  naturalist  will  take  the  trouble  to 
walk  the  sand-beach  between  Lukannon  and  northeast  point  of  St. 
Paul  Island,  he  will  be  rewarded  by  the  memorable  sight.  He 
will  find  thrown  up  by  the  surf  a  vast  windrow  of  kelp  along  the 
whole  eight  or  ten  miles  of  this  walk — heaped,  at  some  spots,  nearly 
as  high  as  his  head  ;  the  large  trunks  of  Melanospermce,  the  small, 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  215 

but  brilliant  red  and  crimson  fronds  of  Rhodospermce  interwoven 
with  the  emerald-green  leaves  of  the  Chlorospermce.  The  first- 
named  group  is  by  far  the  most  abundant,  and  upon  its  decaying, 
fermenting  brown  and  ochre  heaps,  he  will  see  countless  numbers 
of  a  buccinoid  whelk,  and  a  limnaca,  feeding  as  they  bore  or  suck 
out  myriads  of  tiny  holes  in  the  leaf-fronds  of  the  strong  growing 
species.  Actinia  or  sea-anemones,  together  with  asteroids  or  star- 
fishes, Discophorce  or  jelly-fishes,  are  also  interwoven  and  heaped  up 
with  the  "kapoosta"  or  sea-cabbages  just  referred  to  ;  also,  many 
rosy  "  sea-squirts,"  yellow  "  cucumbers,"  and  other  forms  of  Holo- 
th  uridce. 

On  the  old  killing-fields,  on  those  spots  where  the  sloughing 
carcasses  of  repeated  seasons  have  so  enriched  the  soil  as  to  render 
it  like  fire  to  most  vegetation,  a  silken  green  Confervce  grows  luxu- 
riantly. This  terrestrial  algoid  covering  appears  here  and  there, 
on  these  grounds,  like  so  many  door-mats  of  pea-green  wool.  That 
confervoid  flourishes  only  on  those  spots  where  nothing  but  pure 
decaying  animal  matter  is  found.  An  admixture  of  sand  or  earth 
will  always  supplant  it  by  raising  up  instead  those  strong  growing 
grasses  which  I  have  alluded  to  elsewhere,  and  which  constitute  the 
chief  botanical  life  of  the  killing-grounds. 

In  order  that  the  reader  can  follow  easily  the  narrative  of  that 
remarkable  life-system  which  is  conducted  by  the  fur-seal  as'  it  an- 
nually rests  and  breeds  upon  the  Pribylov  group,  I  present  a  care- 
ful chart  of  each  island  and  the  contiguous  islets,  which  are  the 
only  surveys  ever  made  upon  the  ground.  The  reader  will  observe, 
as  he  turns  to  these  maps,  the  striking  dissimilarity  which  exists  be- 
tween them,  not  only  in  contour  but  in  physical  structure,  the 
Island  of  St.  Paul  being  the  largest  in  superficial  area,  and  receiv- 
ing a  vast  majority  of  the  Pinnipedia  that  belong  to  both.  As  it 
lies  in  Bering  Sea  to-day,  this  island  is,  in  its  greatest  length,  be- 
tween northeast  and  southwest  points,  thirteen  miles,  air-line  ;  and 
a  little  less  than  six  at  points  of  greatest  width.  It  has  a  super- 
ficial area  of  about  thirty- three  square  miles,  or  twenty- one  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  twenty  acres,  of  diversified,  rough  and  rocky 
uplands,  rugged  hills,  and  smooth,  volcanic  cones,  which  either  set 
down  boldly  to  the  sea  or  fade  out  into  extensive  wet  and  mossy 
flats,  passing  at  the  sea-margins  into  dry,  drifting,  sand-dune  tracts. 
It  lias  forty-two  miles  of  shore-line,  and  of  this  coast  sixteen  and  a 
half  miles  are  hauled  over  by  fur-seals  en  masse.  At  the  time  of  its 


216  OUK   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

first  upheaval  above  the  sea,  it  doubtless  presented  the  appearance 
of  ten  or  twelve  small  rocky,  bluffy  islets  and  points,  upon  some  of 
which  were  craters  that  vomited  breccia  and  cinders,  with  little  or 
no  lava  overflowing.  Active  plutonic  agency  must  have  soon  ceased 
after  this  elevation,  and  then  the  sea  round  about  commenced  a 
work  which  it  is  now  engaged  in — of  building  on  to  the  skeleton 
thus  created  ;  and  it  has  progressed  to-day  so  thoroughly  and  suc- 
cessfully in  its  labor  of  sand-shifting,  together  with  the  aid  of  ice- 
floes, in  their  action  of  grinding,  lifting,  and  shoving,  that  nearly  all 
of  these  scattered  islets  within  the  present  area  of  the  island,  and 
marked  by  its  bluffs  and  higher  uplands,  are  completely  bound  to- 
gether by  ropes  of  sand,  changed  into  enduring  bars  and  ridges  of 
water-worn  boulders.  These  are  raised  above  the  highest  tides  by 
winds  that  whirl  the  sand  up,  over  and  on  them,  as  it  dries  out 
from  the  wash  of  the  surf  and  from  the  interstices  of  rocks,  which 
are  lifted  up  and  pushed  by  ice-fields. 

The  sand  that  plays  so  important  a  part  in  the  formation  of 
the  Island  of  St.  Paul,  and  which  is  almost  entirely  wanting  in  and 
around  the  others  of  this  Pribylov  group,  is  principally  composed 
of  Foraminifera,  together  with  Diatomacea,  mixed  in  with  a  volcanic 
base  of  fine  comminuted  black  and  reddish  lavas  and  old  friable 
gray  slates.  It  constitutes  the  chief  beauty  of  the  sea-shore  here, 
for  it  changes  color  like  a  chameleon,  as  it  passes  from  wet  to  dry, 
being  a  rich  steely-black  at  the  surf-margin  and  then  drying  out  to 
a  soft  purplish-brown  and  gray,  succeeding  to  tints  most  delicate  of 
reddish  and  pale  neutral,  when  warmed  by  the  sun  and  drifting  up 
on  to  the  higher  ground  with  the  wind.  The  sand-dune  tracts  on 
this  island  are  really  attractive  in  the  summer,  especially  so  during 
those  rare  days  when  the  sun  comes  out,  and  the  unwonted  light 
shimmers  Over  them  and  the  most  luxuriant  grass  and  variety  of 
beautiful  flowers  which  exist  in  profusion  thereon.  In  past  time, 
as  these  sand  and  boulder  bars  were  forming  on  St.  Paul  Island, 
they,  in  making  across  from  islet  to  islet,  enclosed  small  bodies  of 
sea-water.  These  have,  by  evaporation  and  tune,  by  the  flooding  of 
rains  and  annual  melting  of  snow,  become,  nearly  every  one  of 
them,  fresh ;  they  are  all,  great  and  small,  well  shown  on  my  map, 
which  locates  quite  a  large  area  of  pure  water.  In  them,  as  I  have 
hinted,  are  no  reptiles  ;  but  an  exquisite  species  of  a  tiny  fish*  ex- 

*  Oasterosteus  cataphractus  ;  and  pungitius  ;  beautiful  sticklebacks. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  217 

ists  in  the  lagoon-estuary  near  the  village,  and  the  small  pure-water 
lakes  of  the  natives  just  under  the  flanks  of  Telegraph  Hill.  The 
Aleutes  assured  me  that  they  had  caught  fish  in  the  big  lake  to- 
ward Northeast  Point,  when  they  lived  in  their  old  village  out  there ; 
but,  I  never  succeeded  in  getting  a  single  specimen.  The  waters  of 
these  pools  and  ponds  are  fairly  alive  with  vast  numbers  of  minute 
JRotifera,  which  sport  about  in  all  of  them  wherever  they  are  exam- 
ined. Many  species  of  water-plants,  pond-lilies,  algae,  etc.,  are 
found  in  those  inland  waters,  especially  in  that  large  lake  "  Mee- 
sulk-mah-nee,"  which  is  very  shallow. 

The  backbone  of  St.  Paul,  running  directly  east  and  west, 
from  shore  to  shore,  between  Polavina  Point  and  Einahnuhto  Hills, 
constitutes  the  high  land  of  that  island :  Polavina  Sopka,  an  old 
extinct  cinder- crater,  five  hundred  and  fifty  feet ;  Bogaslov,  an 
upheaved  mass  of  splinted  lava,  six  hundred  feet ;  and  the  hills 
frowning  over  the  bluffs  there,  on  the  west  shore,  are  also  six  hun- 
dred feet  in  elevation  above  the  sea.  But  the  average  height  of  the 
upland  between  is  not  much  over  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  above  water-level,  rising  here  and  there  into  little  hills  and 
broad,  rocky  ridges,  which  are  minutely  sketched  upon  the  map. 
From  the  northern  base  of  Polavina  Sopka  a  long  stretch  of  low 
sand-flats  extends,  enclosing  the  great  lake,  and  ending  in  a  narrow 
neck  where  it  unites  with  Novastoshnah,  or  Northeast  Point.  Here 
that  volcanic  nodule  known  as  Hutchinson's  Hill,  with  its  low, 
gradual  slopes,  .trending  to  the  east  and  southward,  makes  a  rocky 
foundation  secure  and  broad,  upon  which  the  great  single  rookery 
of  the  island,  the  greatest  in  the  world,  undoubtedly,  is  located. 
The  natives  say  that  when  they  first  came  to  these  islands  Novas- 
toshna  was  an  island  by  itself,  to  which  they  went  in  boats  from 
Yesolia  Mista ;  and  the  lagoon  now  so  tightly  enclosed  was  then 
an  open  harbor  in  which  the  ships  of  the  old  Russian  Company 
rode  safely  at  anchor.  To-day,  no  vessel  drawing  ten  feet  of  water 
can  safely  get  nearer  than  half  a  mile  of  the  village,  or  a  mile  from 
this  lagoon  at  low  tide. 

The  total  absence  of  a  harbor  at  the  Pribylov  Islands  is  much 
to  be  regretted.  The  village  of  St.  Paul,  as  will  be  seen  by  refer- 
ence to  the  map,  is  so  located  as  to  command  the  best  landings  for 
vessels  that  can  be  made  during  the  prevalence  of  any  and  all 
winds,  except  those  from  the  south.  From  these  there  is  no  shelter 
for  ships,  unless  they  run  around  to  the  north  side,  where  they  are 


218  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

unable  to  hold  practicable  communication  with  the  people  or  to 
discharge.  At  St.  George  matters  are  still  worse,  for  the  prevailing 
northerly,  westerly,  and  easterly  winds  drive  the  boats  away  from 
the  village  roadstead,  and  weeks  often  pass  at  either  island,  but 
more  frequently  at  the  latter,  ere  a  cargo  is  landed  at  its  destina- 
tion. Under  the  very  best  circumstances,  it  is  both  hazardous  and 
trying  to  unload  a  ship  at  any  of  these  places.  The  approach  to  St. 
Paul  by  water  during  thick  weather  is  doubtful  and  dangerous,  for 
the  land  is  mostly  low  at  the  coast,  and  the  fogs  hang  so  dense  and 
heavy  over  and  around  the  hills  as  to  completely  obliterate  their 
presence  from  vision.  The  captain  fairly  feels  his  way  in  by  throw- 
ing his  lead-line  and  straining  his  ear  to  catch  the  muffled  roar  of 
the  seal-rookeries,  which  are  easily  detected  when  once  understood, 
high  above  the  booming  of  the  surf.  At  St.  George,  however,  the 
bold,  abrupt,  bluffy  coast  everywhere  all  around,  with  its  circling 
girdle  of  flying  water-birds  far  out  to  sea,  looms  up  quite  promi- 
nently, even  in  the  fog  ;  or,  in  other  words,  the  navigator  can 
notice  it  before  he  is  hard  aground  or  struggling  to  haul  to  wind- 
ward from  the  breakers  under  his  lee.  There  are  no  reefs  making 
out  from  St.  George  worthy  of  notice,  but  there  are  several  very 
dangerous  and  extended  ones  peculiar  to  St.  Paul,  which  Captain 
John  G.  Baker,  in  command  of  the  vessel*  under -my  direction, 
carefully  sounded  out,  and  which  I  have  placed  upon  my  chart  for 
the  guidance  of  those  who  may  sail  in  my  wake  hereafter. 

When  the  wind  blows  from  the  north,  northwest,  and  west  to 
southwest,  the  company's  steamer  drops  her  anchor  in  eight  fathoms 
of  water  abreast  of  the  black  bluffs  opposite  the  village,  from 
which  anchorage  her  stores  are  lightered  ashore  ;  but  in  the  north- 
easterly, easterly,  and  southeasterly  winds,  she  hauls  around  to  the 
lagoon  bay  west  of  the  village,  and  there,  little  less  than  half  a 
mile  from  the  landing,  she  drops  her  anchor  in  nine  fathoms  of 
water,  and  makes  considerable  headway  at  discharging  her  cargo. 
Sailing-craft  come  to  both  anchorages,  but,  however,  keep  still 
farther  out,  though  they  choose  relatively  the  same  positions,  yet 
seek  deeper  water  to  swing  to  their  cables  in  :  the  holding-ground 
is  excellent.  At  St.  George  the  steamer  comes,  wind  permitting, 
directly  to  the  village  on  the  north  shore,  close  up,  and  finds  her 
anchorage  in  ten  fathoms  of  water,  over  poor  holding-ground ;  still 


*  United  States  Revenue-marine  cutter  Reliance,  June  to  October,  1874. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS. 

it  is  only  when  three  or  four  days  have  passed,  free  from  northerly, 
westerly,  or  easterly  winds  that  she  can  make  the  first  attempt  to 
safely  unload.  The  landing  here  is  a  very  bad  one,  surf  breaking 
most  violently  upon  the  rocks  from  one  end  of  the  year  to  the 
other. 

The  observer  will  notice  that  six  miles  southward  and  westward 
of  the  reef  of  St.  Paul  Island  is  a  bluffy  islet,  called  by  the  Rus- 
sians Bobrovia,  because  in  olden  time  the  promishlyniks  are  said 
to  have  captured  many  thousands  of  sea-otters  on  its  rocky  coast. 
It  rises  from  the  ocean,  sheer  and  bold,  an  unbroken  mural  precipice 
extending  nearly  all  around,  of  sea-front,  but  dropping  on  its 
northern  margin,  at  the  water,  low,  and  slightly  elevated  above  the 
surf- wash,  with  a  broken,  rocky  beach  and  no  sand.  The  height  of 


"Bobrovia,"  or  Otter  Island  six  miles  south  of  St.    Panl   Island. 
[The  North  Shore  and  landing,  viewed,  from  St.  Paul.] 

the  bluffs  at  their  greatest  elevation  over  the  west  end  is  three  hun- 
dred feet,  while  the  eastern  extremity  is  quite  low,  and  terminated 
by  a  queer,  funnel-shaped  crater-hill,  which  is  as  distinctly  defined, 
and  as  plainly  scorched  and  devoid  of  the  slightest  sign  of  vegeta- 
tion within  as  though  it  had  burned  up  and  out  yesterday.  That 
crater-point  on  Otter  Island  is  the  only  unique  feature  of  the  place, 
for  with  the  exception  of  this  low  north  shore,  before  mentioned, 
where  a  few  thousand  of  "  bachelor  seals  "  haul  out  during  the 
season  every  year,  there  is  nothing  else  worthy  of  notice  concern- 
ing it.  A  bad  reef  makes  out  to  the  westward,  which  I  have  indi- 
cated from  my  observation  of  the  rocks  awash,  looking  down  upon 
them  from  the  bluffs.  Great  numbers  of  water-fowl  roost  upon 
the  cliffs,  and  there  are  here  about  as  many  blue  foxes  to  the  acre 
as  the  law  of  life  allows.  A  small,  shallow  pool  of  impure  water 


220  OUR   AECTIC   PROVINCE. 

lies  close  down  to  the  north  shore,  right  under  a  low  hill  upon  which 
the  Russians  in  olden  times  posted  a  huge  Greek  cross,  that  is  still 
standing  ;  indeed  it  was  the  habit  of  those  early  days  of  occupation 
in  Alaska  to  erect  such  monuments  everywhere  on  conspicuous 
elevations  adjacent  to  the  posts  or  settlements.  One  of  these  is 
still  standing  at  Northeast  Point,  on  the  large  sand-dune  there  which 
overlooks  the  killing-grounds,  and  another  sound  stalwart  cross  yet 
faces  the  gales  and  driving  "  boorgas  "  on  the  summit  of  Bogaslov 
Mountain,  as  it  has  withstood  them  during  the  last  sixty  years. 

To  the  eastward,  six  miles  from  Northeast  Point,  will  be  noticed 
a  small  rock  named  Walrus  Island.  It  is  a  mere  ledge  of  lava,  flat- 
capped,  lifted  just  above  the  wash  of  angry  waves ;  indeed,  in 
storms  of  great  power,  the  observer,  standing  on  either  Cross  or 
Hutchinson's  Hills,  with  a  field-glass,  can  see  the  water  breaking 
clear  over  it :  these  storms,  however,  occur  late  in  the  season, 
usually  in  October  or  November.  This  island  has  little  or  no  com- 
mercial importance,  being  scarcely  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in 
length  and  one  hundred  yards  in  point  of  greatest  width,  with  bold 
water  all  around,  entirely  free  from  reefs  or  sunken  rocks.  As 
might  be  expected,  there  is  no  fresh  water  on  it.  In  a  fog  it  makes 
an  ugly  neighbor  for  the  sea-captains  when  they  are  searching  for 
St.  Paul ;  they  all  know  it,  and  they  all  dread  it.  It  is  not  resorted 
to  by  the  fur-seals  or  by  sea-lions  in  particular  ;  but,  singularly 
enough,  it  is  frequented  by  several  hundred  male  walrus,  to  the 
exclusion  of  females,  every  summer.  A  few  sea-lions,  but  only  a  very 
few,  however,  breed  here.  On  account  of  the  rough  weather,  fogs, 
etc.,  this  little  islet  is  seldom  visited  by  the  natives  of  St.  Paul,  and 
then  only  in  the  egging  season  of  late  June  and  early  July  when 
that  surf -beaten  breakwater  literally  swarms  with  breeding  sea-fowl. 

This  low,  tiny,  island  is,  perhaps,  the  most  interesting  single 
spot  now  known  to  the  naturalist  who  may  land  in  northern  seas, 
to  study  the  habits  of  bird-life ;  for  here,  without  exertion  or 
risk,  he  can  observe  and  walk  among  tens  upon  tens  of  thousands 
of  screaming  water-fowl ;  and,  as  he  sits  down  upon  the  polished 
lava  rock,  he  becomes  literally  ignored  and  environed  by  these 
feathered  friends,  as  they  reassume  their  varied  positions  of  incu- 
bation, from  which  he  disturbs  them  by  his  arrival.  Generation 
after  generation  of  their  kind  have  resorted  to  this  rock  unmolested, 
and  to-day,  when  you  get  among  them,  all  doubt  and  distrust  seem 
to  have  been  eliminated  from  their  natures.  The  island  itself  is 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  221 

rather  unusual  in  those  formations  which  we  find  peculiar  to  Alas- 
kan waters.  It  is  almost  flat,  with  slight,  irregular  undulations  on 
top,  spreading  over  an  area  of  five  acres  perhaps.  It  rises  abruptly, 
though  low,  from  the  sea,  and  it  has  no  safe  beach  upon  which  a 
person  can  land  from  a  boat ;  not  a  stick  of  timber  or  twig  of 
shrubbery  ever  grew  upon  it,  though  the  scant  presence  of  low, 
crawling  grasses  in  the  central  portions  prevents  the  statement  that 
all  vegetation  is  absent.  "Were  it  not  for  the  frequent  rains  and 
dissolving  fog  characteristic  of  summer  weather  here,  the  accumula- 
tion of  guano  would  be  something  wonderful  to  contemplate — Peru 
would  have  a  rival.  As  it  is,  however,  the  birds,  when  they  return, 
year  after  year,  find  their  nesting-floor  swept  as  clean  as  though 
they  had  never  sojourned  there  before.  The  scene  of  confusion 
and  uproar  that  presented  itself  to  my  astonished  senses  when  I 
approached  this  place  in  search  of  eggs,  one  threatening,  foggy 
July  morning,  may  be  better  imagined  than  described,  for,  as  the 
clumsy  bidarrah  came  under  the  lee  of  the  low  cliffs,  swarm  upon 
swarm  of  thousands  of  murres  or  "arries  "  dropped  in  fright  from 
their  nesting-shelves,  and,  before  they  had  control  of  their  flight, 
they  struck  to  the  right  and  left  of  me,  like  so  many  cannon-balls.  I 
was  forced,  in  self-protection,  to  instantly  crouch  for  a  few  moments 
under  the  gunwale  of  the  boat  until  the  struggling,  startled  flock 
passed,  like  an  irresistible,  surging  wave,  over  my  head.  Words 
cannot  depict  the  amazement  and  curiosity  with  which  I  gazed 
around  after  climbing  up  to  the  rocky  plateau,  and  stood  among 
myriads  of  breeding-birds  ;  they  fairly  covered  the  entire  surface  of 
the  island  with  their  shrinking  forms,  while  others  whirled  in  rapid 
flight  over  my  head,  as  wheels  within  wheels,  so  thickly  inter-run- 
ning that  the  blue  and  gray  of  the  sky  was  hidden  from  my  view. 
Add  to  this  impression  the  stunning  whir  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  strong,  beating  wings,  the  shrill  screams  of  the  gulls,  and  a 
muffled  croaking  of  the  "arries,"  coupled  with  an  indescribable, 
disagreeable  smell  which  arose  from  broken  eggs  and  other  decay- 
ing substances — then  a  faint  idea  may  be  evoked  of  the  strange 
reality  spread  before  me.  Were  it  not  for  this  island  and  the  ease 
with  which  the  natives  can  gather,  in  a  few  hours,  tons  upon  tons 
of  sea-fowl  eggs,  the  people  of  St  Paul  would  be  obliged  to  go 
the  westward,  and  suspend  themselves  from  the  lofty  cliffs  of  Einah- 
nuhto,  dangling  over  the  sea  by  ropes,  as  their  less  favored  neigh- 
bors are  only  too  glad  and  willing  to  do  at  St.  George. 


222  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

I  am  much  divided  in  my  admiration  of  the  two  great  bird-rook, 
eries  of  this  Pribylov  group,  the  one  on  the  face  of  the  high  bluffs 
at  St.  George,  and  the  other  on  the  table-top  of  Walrus  Islet ;  but 
perhaps  the  latter  place  gives,  within  the  smallest  area,  the  greatest 
variety  of  nesting  and  breeding  birds,  for  here  the  "  arrie "  and 
many  gulls,  cormorants,  sea-parrots,  and  auks  come  to  lay  their 
eggs  in  countless  numbers.  The  face  and  brow  of  the  low,  cliff- 
like  sea-front  to  this  island  are  occupied  almost  exclusively  by  the 
"arries,"  Lomvia  arra,  which  lay  a  single  egg  each  on  the  surface 
of  the  bare  rock,  and  stand,  just  like  so  many  champagne  bottles, 
straddling  over  them  while  hatching,  only  leaving  at  irregular  inter- 
vals to  feed,  and  then  not  until  their  mates  relieve  them.  Hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  these  birds  alone  are  thus  engaged  about 
the  29th  of  every  June  on  this  little  rocky  island,  roosting  stacked 
up  together  as  tight  as  so  many  sardines  in  a  box,  as  compactly  as 
they  can  be  stowed,  each  and  all  of  them  uttering  an  incessant, 
muffled,  hoarse,  grunting  noise.  How  fiercely  they  quarrel  among 
themselves — everlastingly  !  and  in  this  way  thousands  of  eggs  are 
rolled  off  into  the  sea,  or  into  crevices,  or  into  fissures,  where  they 
are  lost  and  broken. 

The  "  arrie  "  lays  but  one  egg.  If  it  is  removed  or  broken,  she 
will  soon  lay  another ;  but  if  undisturbed  after  depositing  the  first, 
she  undertakes  its  hatching  at  once.  The  size,  shape,  and  colora- 
tion of  this  egg,  among  the  thousands  which  came  under  my  ob- 
servation, are  exceedingly  variable.  A  large  proportion  of  the  eggs 
become  so  dirty  by  rolling  here  and  there  in  the  guano  while  the 
birds  tread  and  fight  over  them  as  to  be  almost  unrecognizable.  I 
was  struck  by  a  happy  adaptation  of  nature  to  their  rough  nest- 
ing. It  is  found  in  the  toughness  of  this  shell  of  the  egg,  so  tough 
that  the  natives,  when  gathering  them,  throw  them  as  farmers  do 
apples  into  their  tubs,  baskets,  etc.,  on  the  cliff,  and  then  carry 
them  down  to  a  general  heap  of  collection  near  the  boats'  land- 
ing, where  they  are  poured  out  upon  the  rocks  with  a  single  flip  of 
the  hand,  just  as  a  sack  of  potatoes  would  be  emptied ;  and  then 
again,  after  this,  they  are  quite  as  carelessly  handled  when  loaded 
into  the  "bidarrah,"  sustaining  through  it  all  a  very  trifling  loss 
from  crushed  or  broken  specimens.  * 

*  To  visit  Walrus  Island  in  a  boat,  pleasantly  and  successfully,  it  is  best  to 
submit  to  the  advice  and  direction  of  the  natives.  They  leave  the  village  in 
the  evening,  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  tide,  proceed  along  the  coast  as  far 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  223 

These  "  arries  "  seem  to  occupy  a  ribbon  strip  in  width :  it  is 
drawn  around  the  outward  edges  of  the  flat  table-top  to  Walrus 
Island  as  a  regular  belt,  reserved  all  to  themselves  :  while  the  small 
grassy  interior  from  which  they  are  thus  self -excluded  is  the  only 
place,  I  believe,  in  Bering  Sea  where  the  big  white  gull,  Larus 
glaucus,  breeds.  Here  I  found  among  grassy  tussocks  the  white 
burgomaster  building  a  nest  of  dry  grass,  sea-ferns,  Sertidaridce, 
etc.,  very  nicely  laid  up  and  rounded,  and  in  which  it  laid  usually 
three  eggs,  sometimes  only  a  couple  ;  occasionally  I  would  look  in- 
to a  nest  with  four.  These  heavy  gulls  could  not  breed  on  either  of 
the  other  islands  in  this  manner,  for  the  glaucous  gull  is  too  large 
to  settle  on  the  narrow  shelf-ledges  of  the  cliffs,  as  the  smaller  gulls 
do,  and  lesser  water-fowls,  and  those  places  which  could  receive  it 
would  also  be  a  happy  hunting-ground  and  footing  to  the  foxes. 

The  red-legged  kittiwake,  fiissa  brevirostris,  and  its  cousin, 
Rissa  tridactyla,  build  in  the  most  amicable  manner  together  on 
the  faces  of  those  cliffs,  for  they  are  little  gulls,  and  they  associate 
with  cormorants,  sea-parrots,  and  tiny  auks,  all  together,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  the  last,  their  nests  are  very  easy  of  access.  All 
birds,  especially  the  "arries,"  have  an  exceedingly  happy  time  of  it 
on  this  Walrus  Islet — nothing  to  disturb  them,  in  my  opinion,  free 
from  the  ravenous  maw  of  blue  foxes  over  on  St.  Paul,  and  from  the 
piratical  and  death-dealing  sweep  of  owls  and  hawks,  which  infest 
the  Aleutian  chain  and  the  mainland. 

The  position  of  the  islands  is  such  as  to  be  somewhat  outside 
of  that  migratory  path  pursued  by  the  birds  on  the  mainland,  and 
owing  to  this  reason  they  are  only  visited  by  a  few  stragglers  from 

as  the  bluffs  of  Polavina,  where  they  rest  on  their  oars,  doze,  and  smoke  until 
the  dawning  of  daylight,  or  later,  perhaps,  until  the  fog  lifts  enough  for  them 
to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  islet  which  they  seek.  They  row  over  then  in  about  two 
hours  with  their  bidarrah.  They  leave,  however,  with  perfect  indifference  as 
to  daylight  or  fog.  Nothing  but  a  southeaster  can  disturb  their  tranquillity 
when  they  succeed  in  landing  on  Walrus  Island.  They  would  find  it  as  difficult 
to  miss  striking  the  extended  reach  of  St.  Paul  on  their  return,  as  they  found 
it  well-nigh  impossible  to  push  off  from  Polavina  and  find  "Morzovia"  in  a 
thick,  windy  fog  and  running  sea. 

Otter  Island,  or  "Bobrovia,"  is  easily  reached  in  almost  any  weather  that 
is  not  very  stormy,  for  it  looms  up  high  above  the  water.  It  takes  the  bidar- 
rah about  two  hours  to  row  over  from  the  village,  while  I  have  gone  across 
once  in  a  whale-boat  with  less  than  one  hour's  expenditure  of  time,  sail,  and 
oars  en  route. 


224  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

that  quarter,  a  few  from  the  Asiatic  side,  and  by  the  millions  of 
their  own  home-bred  and  indigenous  stock.  One  of  these  migra- 
tory species,  a  turnstone,  however,  comes  here  every  summer,  for 
three  or  four  weeks'  stay,  in  great  numbers,  and  actually  gets  so 
fat  in  feeding  upon  the  larvae  which  abound  in  the  decaying  car- 
casses over  the  killing-grounds  that  it  usually  bursts  open  when  it 
falls,  shot  on  the  wing.  A  heavy  easterly  gale  once  brought  a 
strange  bird  to  the  islands  from  the  mainland — a  grebe,  P.  grisei- 
gena.  It  was  stranded  on  St.  George  in  1873,  whereupon  the  natives 
declared  the  like  of  which  they  had  never  seen  before ;  again,  I 
found  a  robin  one  cool  morning  in  October,  the  15th :  the  natives 
told  me  that  it  was  an  accident — brought  over  by  some  storm  or 
gale  of  wind  that  took  it  up  and  off  from  its  path  across  the  tundra 
of  Bristol  Bay.  The  next  fair  wind  sweeping  from  the  north  or 
the  west  could  be  so  improved  by  this  robin,  M.  migratoria,  that 
it  would  spread  its  wings  and  as  abruptly  return.  Thus  hawks, 
owls,  and  a  number  of  strange  water-fowls  visit  the  islands,  but 
never  remain  there  long. 

The  Kussians  tried  the  experiment  of  bringing  up  from  Sitka 
and  Oonalashka  a  flock  of  ravens,  as  scavengers,  a  number  of  years 
ago,  and  when  they  were  very  uncleanly  in  the  village,  in  con- 
trast with  the  practice  of  the  present  hour.  They  reasoned  that 
they  would — these  ill-omened  birds — be  invaluable  as  health  offi- 
cers ;  but  the  Corvidce  invariably,  sooner  or  later,  and  within  a  very 
short  time,  took  the  first  wind-train  or  lightning-express  back  to 
the  mainland  or  the  Aleutian  islands.  Yet  the  natives  say  that  if 
the  birds  had  been  young  ones  instead  of  old  fellows  they  would 
have  remained.  I  saw  a  great  many,  however,  at  St.  Matthew 
Island  in  August,  1874. 

A  glance  at  the  map  of  St.  Paul  shows  that  nearly  half  of  its 
superficial  area  is  low  and  quite  flat,  not  much  elevated  above  the 
sea.  Wherever  the  sand-dune  tracts  are  located,  and  that  is  right 
along  the  coast,  will  be  found  an  irregular  succession  of  hummocks 
and  hillocks,  drifted  by  the  wind,  which  are  very  characteristic.  On 
the  summits  of  these  hillocks  an  Elymus  has  taken  root  in  times 
past,  and,  as  the  sand  drifts  up,  it  keeps  growing  on  and  up  too, 
so  that  a  quaint  spectacle  is  presented  of  large  stretches  to  the  view 
wherein  sand-dunes,  entirely  bare  of  all  vegetation  at  their  base 
and  on  their  sides,  are  crowned  with  a  living  cap  of  the  brightest 
green — a  tuft  of  long,  waving  grass  blades  which  will  not  down. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  225 

None  of  this  peculiar  landscaping,  however,  is  seen  on  St.  George, 
not  even  in  the  faintest  degree.  Travel  about  Si  Paul,  with  the 
exception  of  that  trail  to  Northeast  Point,  where  the  natives  take 
advantage  of  low  water  to  run  on  the  hard,  wet  sand,  is  exceedingly 
difficult,  and  there  are  examples  of  only  a  few  white  men  who  have 
ever  taken  the  trouble  and  expended  the  physical  energy  necessary 
to  accomplish  a  comparatively  short  walk  from  the  village  to 
Nahsayvernia,  or  the  north  shore.  Walking  upon  the  moss-hidden 
and  slippery  rocks,  or  tumbling  over  slightly  uncertain  tussocks,  is 
a  task  and  not  a  pleasure.  On  St.  George,  with  the  exception  of  a 
half-mile  path  to  the  village  cemetery  and  back,  nobody  pretends 
to  walk,  except  the  natives  who  go  to  and  from  the  rookeries  in 
their  regular  seal-drives.  Indeed,  I  am  told  that  I  am  the  only 
white  man  who  has  ever  traversed  the  entire  coast-line  of  both 
islands.* 


*  That  profile  of  the  south  shore,  between  the  village  hill  and  Southwest 
Point,  taken  from  the  steamer's  anchorage  off  the  village  cove,  shows  its 
characteristic  and  remarkable  alternation  of  rookery  slope  and  low  sea-level 
flats.  This  point  of  viewing  is  slightly  more  than  half  a  mile  true  west  of  the 
village  hill,  to  a  sight  which  brings  Bogaslov  summits  and  Tolstoi  Head 
nearly  in  line.  At  Zapadnie  is  the  place  where  the  Russian  discoverers  first 
landed  in  1787,  July  10th.  With  the  exception  of  that  bluffy  west-end  Ein- 
ahnuh-to  cliffs,  the  whole  coast  of  St.  Paul  is  accessible,  and  affords  an  easy 
landing,  except  at  the  short  reach  of  "Seethah"  and  the  rookery  points,  as 
indicated.  The  great  sand  beach  of  this  island  extends  from  Lukannon  to 
Folavina,  thence  to  Webster's  house,  Novastoshnah ;  from  there  over,  and 
sweeping  back  and  along  the  north  shore  to  Nahsayvernia  headland,  then  be- 
tween Zapadnie  and  Tolstoi,  together  with  the  beautiful  though  short  sand  of 
Zoltoi.  This  extensive  and  slightly  broken  sandy  coast  is  not  described  as 
peculiar  to  any  other  island  in  Alaska,  or  of  Siberian  waters. 

There  are  no  running  streams  at  any  season  of  the  year  on  St.  Paul ;  but 
an  abundance  of  fresh  water  is  plainly  afforded  by  the  numerous  lakes,  all 
of  which  are  '  *  svayjoi, "  save  the  lagoon  estuary.  The  four  big  reefs  which 
I  have  located  are  each  awash  in  every  storm  that  blows  from  seaward  over 
them  ;  they  are  all  rough,  rocky  ledges.  That  little  one  indicated  in  English 
Bay  caused  the  wrecking  of  a  large  British  vessel  in  1847,  which  was  coming 
in  to  anchor  just  without  Zapadnie;  a  number  of  the  crew  were  "  massluck- 
-o  my  native  informant  averred.  Most  of  the  small  amount  of  drift- 
wood that  is  found  on  this  island  is  procured  at  Northeast  Point  and  Polavina  ; 
the  north  shore  from  Maroonitch  to  Tsammanah  has  also  been  favored  with 
sea-waif  logs  in  exceptional  seasons,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  sections  of 
the  coast.  The  natives  say  that  the  St.  George  people  get  much  more  drift- 
wood every  year,  as  a  rule,  than  they  do  on  St.  PauL  From  what  I  could  see 
15 


226  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

Turning  to  St.  George  and  its  profile,  presented  by  the  accom- 
panying map,  the  observer  will  be  struck  at  once  by  the  solidity  of 
that  little  island  and  its  great  boldness,  rising,  as  it  does,  sheer  and 
precipitous  from  the  sea  all  around,  except  at  the  three  short 
reaches  of  the  coast  indicated  on  my  chart,  and  where  the  only 
chance  to  come  ashore  exists. 

The  seals  naturally  have  no  such  opportunity  to  gain  a  footing 
here  as  they  have  on  St.  Paul,  hence  their  comparative  insignificance 
as  to  number.  The  island  itself  is  a  trifle  over  ten  miles  in  ex- 
treme length,  east  and  west,  and  about  four  and  a  quarter  miles  in 
greatest  width,  north  and  south.  It  looks,  when  plotted,  somewhat 
like  an  old  stone  axe ;  and,  indeed,  when  I  had  finished  my  initial  con- 
tours from  my  field-notes,  the  ancient  stone-axe  outline  so  disturbed 
me  that  I  felt  obliged  to  resurvey  the  southern  shore,  in  order  that 
I  might  satisfy  my  own  mind  as  to  the  accuracy  of  my  first  work. 
It  consists  of  two  great  plateaus,  with  a  high  upland  valley  between, 
the  western  table-land  dropping  abruptly  to  the  sea  at  Dalnoi 
Mees,  while  the  eastern  falls  as  precipitately  at  Waterfall  Head 
and  Tolstoi  Mees.  There  are  several  little  reservoirs  of  fresh 
water — I  can  scarcely  call  them  lakes — on  this  island  ;  pools,  rather, 
that  the  wet  sphagnum  seems  to  always  keep  full,  and  from  which 
drinking-water  in  abundance  is  everywhere  found.  At  Garden 
Cove  is  a  small,  living  stream :  it  is  the  only  one  on  the  Pribylov 
group. 

St.  George  has  an  area  of  about  twenty-seven  square  miles ;  it 
has  twenty-nine  miles  of  coast-line,  of  which  only  two  and  a  quarter 
are  visited  by  the  fur-seals,  and  which  is  in  fact  all  the  eligible 
landing-ground  afforded  them  by  the  structure  of  the  island. 
Nearly  half  of  the  shore  of  St.  Paul  is  a  sandy  beach,  while  on  St. 
George  there  is  less  than  a  mile  of  it  all  put  together,  namely :  a 
few  hundred  yards  in  front  of  the  village,  the  same  extent  on  the 

during  my  four  seasons  of  inspection,  they  never  have  got  much,  under  the 
best  of  circumstances,  on  either  island.  They  pay  little  attention  to  it  now, 
and  gather  what  they  do  during  the  winter  season,  going  to  Polavina  and  the 
north  shore  with  sleds,  on  which  they  hoist  sails  after  loading  there,  and  scud 
home  before  strong  northerly  blasts. 

Captain  Erskine  informs  me  that  the  water  is  free  and  bold  all  around  the 
north  shore,  from  Cross  Hill  to  Southwest  Point ;  no  reefs  or  shoals  up  to  with- 
in half  a  mile  of  land  anywhere.  English  Bay  is  very  shallow,  and  no  sea- 
going vessel  should  attempt  to  enter  it  that  draws  over  six  feet. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  227 

Garden  Cove  beach,  southeast  side,  and  less  than  half  a  mile  at 
Zapadnie  on  the  south  side. 

Just  above  the  Garden  Cove,  under  the  overhanging  bluffs, 
several  thousand  sea-lions  hold  exclusive,  though  shy,  possession. 
Here  there  is  a  half-mile  of  good  landing.  On  the  north  shore  of 
the  island,  three  miles  west  from  the  village,  a  grand  bluff  wall  of 
basalt  and  tufa  intercalated  rises  abruptly  from  the  sea  to  a  sheer 
height  of  nine  hundred  and  twenty  feet  at  its  reach  of  greatest 
elevation :  thence,  dropping  a  little,  runs  clear  around  the  island  to 
Zapadnie,  a  distance  of  nearly  ten  miles,  without  affording  a  single 
passage-way  up  or  down  to  the  sea  that  thunders  at  its  base.  Upon 
its  innumerable  narrow  shelf-margins,  and  in  its  countless  chinks 
and  crannies,  and  back  therefrom  over  an  extended  area  of  lava- 
shingled  inland  ridges  and  terraces,  millions  upon  millions  of  water- 
fowl breed  during  the  summer  months. 

The  general  altitude  of  St.  George,  though  in  itself  not  great, 
has,  however,  an  average  three  times  higher  than  that  of  St.  Paul, 
the  elevation  of  which  is  quite  low,  and  slopes  gently  down  to  the 
sea  east  and  north  ;  St.  George  rises  abruptly,  with  exceptional 
spots  for  landing.  The  loftiest  summit  on  St.  George,  the  top  of 
the  hill  right  back  to  the  southward  of  the  village,  is  nine  hundred 
and  thirty  feet,  and  is  called  by  the  natives  Ahluckeyak.  That  on 
St.  Paul,  as  I  have  before  said,  is  Bogaslov  Hill,  six  hundred  feet. 
All  elevations  on  either  island,  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  above  sea-level, 
are  rough  and  hummocky,  with  the  exception  of  those  sand-dune 
tracts  at  St.  Paul  and  the  summits  of  the  cinder  hills,  on  both 
islands.  Weathered  out,  or  washed  from  the  basalt  and  pockets  of 
oli vine  on  either  island,  are  aggregates  of  augite,  seen  most  abun- 
dant on  the  summit  slopes  of  Ahluckeyak  Hill,  St.  George.  Speci- 
mens from  stratified  bands  of  old,  friable,  gray  lavas,  so  conspic- 
uous on  the  shore  of  this  latter  island,  show  an  existence  of  horn- 
blende and  vitreous  felspar  in  considerable  quantity,  while  on 
the  south  shore,  near  Garden  Cove,  is  a  large  dike  of  a  bluish 
and  greenish  gray  phonolite,  in  which  numerous  small  crystals  of 
spinel  are  found.  A  dike,  with  well-defined  walls,  of  old  close- 
grained,  clay-colored  lava,  is  near  the  village  of  St.  George,  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  east  from  the  landing,  in  the  face  of  those  red- 
dish breccia  bluffs  that  rise  from  the  sea.  It  is  the  only  example 
of  the  kind  on  the  islands.  The  bases  or  foundations  of  the  Pribylov 
Islands  are,  all  of  them,  basaltic  ;  some  are  compact  and  grayish- 


228  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

white,  but  most  of  them  exceedingly  porous  and  ferruginous.* 
Upon  this  solid  floor  are  many  hills  of  brown  and  red  tufa,  cinder- 
heaps,  etc.  Polavina  Sopka,  the  second  point  in  elevation  on  St. 
Paul  Island,  is  almost  entirely  built  up  of  red  scoria  and  breccia  ; 
so  is  Ahluckeyak  Hill,  on  St.  George,  and  the  cap  to  the  high  bluffs 
opposite.  The  village  hill  at  St.  Paul,  Cone  hill,  the  Einahnuhto 
peaks,  Crater  Hill,  North  Hill,  and  Little  Polavina  are  all  ash-heaps 
of  this  character.  The  bluffs  at  the  shore  of  Polavina  Point,  St. 
Paul,  show  in  a  striking  manner  a  section  of  the  geological  struct- 
ure of  the  island.  The  tufas  on  both  islands,  at  the  surface,  de- 
compose and  weather  into  the  base  of  good  soil,  which  the  severe 
climate,  however,  renders  useless  to  good  husbandmen.  There  is 
not  a  trace  of  granitic  or  of  gneissoid  rocks  found  in  situ.  Meta- 
morphic  boulders  have  been  collected  along  the  beaches  and 
pushed  up  by  heavy  ice-floes  which  have  brought  them  down  from 

*  The  profile  of  the  coast  of  St.  George's  Island,  which  I  give  on  the  map, 
presents  clearly  an  idea  of  its  characteristic,  bold,  abrupt  elevation  from  the 
sea.  From  the  Garden  Cove  around  to  Zapadnie  beach  there  is  no  natural 
opportunity  for  a  man  to  land  ;  then ,  again,  from  Zapadnie  beach  round  to 
Starry  Arteel  there  is  not  a  sign  of  a  chance  for  an  agile  man  to  come  ashore 
and  reach  the  plateau  above.  From  Starry  Arteel  to  the  Great  Eastern  rookery 
there  is  an  alternation,  between  the  several  breeding-grounds,  of  three  low 
and  gradual  slopes  of  the  land  to  sea-level ;  these,  with  the  landing  at  Garden 
Cove  and  at  Zapadnie,  are  the  only  spots  of  the  St.  George  coast  where  we  can 
come  ashore.  An  active  person  can  scramble  up  at  several  steep  places  be- 
tween the  Sea  Lion  rookery  and  Tolstoi  Mees,  but  the  rest  of  that  extended 
bluffy  sea-wall,  which  I  have  just  defined,  is  wholly  inaccessible  from  the 
water.  A  narrow  strip  of  rough,  rocky  shingle,  washed  over  by  every  storm- 
beaten  sea,  is  all  that  lies  beneath  the  mural  precipices. 

In  the  spring,  when  snow  melts  on  the  high  plateau,  a  beautiful  cascade 
is  seen  at  Waterfall  Head  ;  its  feathery,  filmy,  silver  ribbon  of  plunging  water 
is  thrown  out  into  exquisite  relief  by  the  rich  background  of  that  brownish 
basalt  and  tufa  over  which  it  drops.  Another  pretty  little  waterfall  is  to  be 
seen  just  west  of  the  village,  at  this  season  only,  where  it  leaps  from  a  low 
range  of  bluffs  to  the  sea.  The  first-named  cascade  is  more  than  four  hun- 
dred feet  in  sheer  unbroken  precipitation. 

One  or  two  small,  naked,  pinnacle  rocks,  standing  close  in,  and  almost 
joined  to  the  beach  at  the  Sea  Lion  rookery,  constitute  the  only  outlying  islets 
or  rocks  ;  a  stony  kelp-bed  at  Zapadnie,  and  one  off  the  Little  Eastern  rook 
ery,  both  of  limited  reach  seaward,  are  the  only  hindrances  to  a  ship's  sailing 
boldly  round  the  island,  even  to  scraping  the  bluffs,  at  places,  safely  with  her 
yard-arms.  I  have  located  the  Zapadnie  shoal  by  observation  from  the  bluffs 
above  ;  while  Captain  Baker,  of  the  Reliance,  sounded  out  the  other. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  229 

Siberian  coasts  far  away  to  the  northwest.  The  dark-brown  tufa 
bluffs  and  the  breccia  walls  at  the  east  landing  of  St.  Paul  Island, 
known  as  "  Black  Bluffs,"  rise  suddenly  from  the  sea  sixty  to  eighty 
feet,  with  stratified  horizontal  lines  of  light-gray  calcareous  con- 
glomerate, or  cement,  in  which  are  embedded  sundry  fossils  charac- 
teristic of  and  belonging  to  the  Tertiary  Age,  such  as  Cardium 
grcenlandicum,  C.  decoratum,  and  Astarte  pectunculata,  etc.  This  is 
the  only  locality  within  the  purview  of  the  Pribylov  Islands  where 
any  palaentological  evidence  of  their  age  can  be  found.  These 
specimens,  as  indicated,  are  exceedingly  abundant  ;  I  brought 
down  a  whole  series,  gathered  there  at  the  east  landing  or  "  Nava- 
stock,"  in  a  short  half -hour's  search  and  labor. 

Although  small  quantities  of  drift-wood  lodge  at  all  points  of 
the  coast,  yet  the  greatest  amount  is  found  on  the  south  shore,  and 
thence  around  to  Garden  Cove  ;  this  drift-timber  is  usually  wholly 
stripped  of  its  bark,  principally  pine  and  fir  sticks,  some  of  them 
quite  large,  eighteen  inches  or  two  feet  in  diameter.  Several  years 
occur  when  a  large  driftage  will  be  thrown  or  stranded  here  ;  then 
long  intervals  of  many  seasons  will  elapse  with  scarcely  a  log  or 
stick  coming  ashore.  I  found  at  Garden  Cove,  in  June,  1873,  the 
well-preserved  husk  of  a  cocoanut,  cast  up  by  the  surf  on  the  beach : 
did  I  not  know  that  it  was  most  undoubtedly  thrown  over  by  some 
whaler  in  these  waters,  not  many  hundred  miles  away  at  the  far- 
thest, I  should  have  indulged  in  a  pretty  reverie  as  to  its  path  in 
drifting  from  the  South  Seas  to  this  lonely  islet.  I  presume,  how- 
ever, that  the  timber  which  the  sea  brings  for  the  Pribylov  Islands 
is  that  borne  down  upon  the  annual  floods  of  the  Kuskokvim  and 
Nooshagak  Rivers  on  the  mainland,  and  to  the  east-northeastward,  a 
trifle  more  than  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  ;  it  comes,  how- 
ever, in  very  scant  supply.  I  saw  very  little  drift-wood  on  St.  Mat- 
thew Island  ;  but  on  the  eastern  shore  of  St.  Lawrence  there  was 
an  immense  aggregate,  which  unquestionably  came  from  the  Yukon 
mouth. 

The  fact  that  fur-seals  frequent  these  islands  and  those  of 
Bering  and  Copper,  on  the  Russian  side,  to  the  exclusion  of  other 
land,  seems  at  first  odd  or  singular,  to  say  the  least ;  but  when  we 
come  to  examine  the  subject  we  find  that  those  animals,  when  they 
repair  hither  to  rest  for  two  or  three  months  on  the  land,  as  they 
must  do  by  their  habit  during  the  breeding-season,  require  a  cool, 
moist  atmosphere,  imperatively  coupled  with  firm,  well-drained 


230  OUR  AECTIC   PROVINCE. 

land,  or  dry  broken  rocks  or  shingle,  rather,  upon  which  to  take 
their  positions  and  remain  undisturbed  by  the  weather  and  the  sea 
for  a  lengthy  period  of  reproduction.  If  the  rookery-ground  is 
hard  and  flat,  with  an  admixture  of  loam  or  soil,  puddles  are  speed- 
ily formed  in  this  climate,  where  it  rains  almost  every  day,  and  when 
not  raining,  rain-fogs  take  rapid  succession  and  continue  the  satur- 
ation, making  thus  a  muddy  slime,  which  very  quickly  takes  the 
hair  off  the  animals  whenever  it  plasters  or  wherever  it  fastens  on 
them  ;  hence  they  carefully  avoid  any  such  landing.  If  they  oc- 
cupy a  sandy  shore  the  rain  beats  that  material  into  their  large, 
sensitive  eyes,  and  into  their  fur,  so  they  are  obliged,  from  simple 
irritation,  to  leave  and  return  to  the  sea  for  relief. 

This  inspection  of  some  natural  characteristics  of  the  Pribylov 
group  renders  it  quite  plain  that  the  Seal  Islands,  now  under  discus- 
sion, offer  to  the  Pinnipedia  very  remarkable  advantages  for  landing, 
especially  so  at  St.  Paul,  where  the  ground  of  basaltic  rock  and  of 
volcanic  tufa  or  cement  slopes  up  from  many  points  gradually  above 
the  sea,  making  thereby  a  perfectly  adapted  resting-place  for  any 
number,  from  a  thousand  to  millions,  of  those  intelligent  animals, 
which  can  lie  out  here  from  May  until  October  every  year  in  per- 
fect physical  peace  and  security.  There  is  not  a  rod  of  ground  of 
this  character  offered  to  these  animals  elsewhere  in  all  Alaska,  not 
on  the  Aleutian  chain,  not  on  the  mainland,  not  on  St.  Matthew  or 
St.  Lawrence.  Both  of  the  latter  islands  were  surveyed  by  myself, 
with  special  reference  to  this  query,  in  1874  ;  every  foot  of  St.  Mat- 
thew shore-line  was  examined,  and  I  know  that  the  fur-seal  could 
not  rest  on  the  low  clayey  flats  there  in  contentment  a  single 
day  ;  hence  he  never  has  rested  there,  nor  will  he  in  the  future. 
As  to  St.  Lawrence,  it  is  so  ice-bound  and  snow-covered  in  spring 
and  early  summer,  to  say  nothing  of  numerous  other  physical  dis- 
advantages, that  it  never  becomes  of  the  slightest  interest  to  fur- 
seals. 

When  Pribylov,  in  taking  possession,  landed  on  St.  George  a 
part  of  his  little  ship's  crew,  July,  1786,  he  knew  that,  as  it  was  un- 
inhabited, it  would  be  necessary  to  establish  a  colony  there  from 
which  to  draft  laborers  to  do  all  killing,  skinning,  and  curing  of 
the  peltries ;  therefore  he  and  his  associates,  and  his  rivals  after 
him,  imported  natives  of  Oonalashka  and  Atkha— passive,  docile 
Aleutes.  They  founded  their  first  village  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  the 
eastward  of  one  of  the  principal  rookeries  on  St.  George,  now 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  231 

called  "  Starry  Arteel,"  or  "  Old  Settlement";  a  village  was  also  lo- 
cated at  Zapadnie,  and  a  succession  of  barraboras  planted  at  Garden 
Cove.  Then,  during  the  following  season,  more  men  were  brought 
up  from  Atkha  and  taken  over  to  St.  Paul,  where  five  or  six  rival 
traders  posted  themselves  on  the  north  shore,  near  and  at  "  Ma- 
roonitch,"  and  at  the  head  of  the  Big  Lake,  among  the  sand-dunes 
there.  They  were  then,  as  they  are  now,  somewhat  given  to  riotous 
living  if  they  only  had  the  chance,  and  the  ruins  of  the  Big  Lake 
settlement  are  pleasantly  remembered  by  the  descendants  of  those 
pioneers  to-day,  on  St.  Paul,  who  take  off  their  hats  as  they  pass 
by  to  affectionately  salute,  and  call  the  place  "  Vesolia  Mista,"  or 
"  Jolly  Spot " — the  aged  men  telling  me,  in  a  low  whisper,  that  "  in 
those  good  old  days  they  had  plenty  of  rum."  But,  when  the  pres- 
sure of  competition  became  great,  another  village  was  located  at 
Polavina,  and  still  another  at  Zapadnie,  until  the  activity  and  un- 
scrupulous energy  of  all  these  rival  settlements  well-nigh  drove  out 
and  eliminated  the  seals  in  1796.  Three  years  later  the  whole  ter- 
ritory of  Alaska  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  absolute  power  vested 
in  the  Russian  American  Company.  These  islands  were  in  the  bill 
of  sale,  and  early  in  1799  the  competing  traders  were  turned  oft 
neck  and  heels  from  them,  and  the  Pribylov  group  passed  under 
the  control  of  a  single  man,  the  iron-willed  Baranov.  The  people 
on  St.  Paul  were  then  all  drawn  together,  for  economy  and  warmth, 
into  a  single  settlement  at  Polavina.  Their  life  in  those  days  must 
have  been  miserable.  They  were  mere  slaves,  without  the  slightest 
redress  from  any  insolence  or  injury  which  their  masters  might  see 
fit,  in  petulance  or  brutal  orgies,  to  inflict  upon  them.  Here  they 
lived  and  died,  unnoticed  and  uncared  for,  in  large  barracoons  half 
under  ground  and  dirt-roofed,  cold  and  filthy.  Along  toward  the 
beginning  or  end  of  1825,  in  order  that  they  might  reap  the  advan- 
tage of  being  located  best  to  load  and  unload  ships,  the  Polavina 
settlement  was  removed  to  the  present  village  site,  as  indicated  on 
the  map,  and  the  natives  have  lived  there  ever  since. 

On  St.  George  the  several  scattered  villages  were  abandoned, 
and  consolidated  at  the  existing  location  some  years  later,  but  for 
a  different  reason.  The  labor  of  bringing  the  seal-skins  over  to 
Garden  Cove,  which  is  the  best  and  surest  landing,  was  so  great, 
and  that  of  carrying  them  from  the  north  shore  to  Zapadnie  still 
greater,  that  it  was  decided  to  place  the  consolidated  settlement  at 
such  a  point  between  them,  on  the  north  shore,  that  the  least  trou- 


232  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

ble  and  exertion  of  conveyance  would  be  necessary.  A  better  place, 
geographically,  for  the  business  of  gathering  the  skins  and  salting 
them  down  at  St.  George  cannot  be  found  on  the  island,  but  a 
poorer  place  for  a  landing  it  is  difficult  to  pick  out,  though  in  this 
respect  there  is  not  much  choice  outside  of  Garden  Cove. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  transfer  of  the  territory  and  leasing  of 
the  islands  to  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company,  in  August,  1870, 
these  native  inhabitants  all  lived  in  huts  or  sod- walled  and  dirt- 
roofed  houses,  called  "  barrabkies,"  partly  under  ground.  Most  of 
these  huts  were  damp,  dark,  and  exceedingly  filthy  :  it  seemed  to  be 
the  policy  of  a  short-sighted  Russian  management  to  keep  them 
so,  and  to  treat  the  natives  not  near  so  well  as  they  treated  the  few 
hogs  and  dogs  which  they  brought  up  there  for  food  and  for  com- 
pany. The  use  of  seal-fat  for  fuel,  caused  the  deposit  upon  every- 
thing within  doors  of  a  thick  coat  of  greasy,  black  soot,  strongly  im- 
pregnated with  a  damp,  moldy,  and  indescribably  offensive  odor. 
They  found  along  the  north  shore  of  St.  Paul  and  at  Northeast 
Point,  occasionally  scattered  pieces  of  drift-wood,  which  was  used, 
carefully  soaked  anew  in  water  if  it  had  dried  out,  split  into  little 
fragments,  and,  trussing  the  blubber  with  it  when  making  their  fires, 
the  combination  gave  rise  to  a  roaring,  spluttering  blaze.  If  this 
drift-wood  failed  them  at  any  time  when  winter  came  round,  they 
were  obliged  to  huddle  together  beneath  skins  in  their  cold  huts, 
and  live  or  die,  as  the  case  might  be.  But  the  situation  to-day  has 
changed  marvellously.  We  see  here  now  at  St.  Paul,  and  on  St. 
George,  in  the  place  of  the  squalid,  filthy  habitations  of  the  imme- 
diate past,  two  villages,  neat,  warm,  and  contented.  Each  family 
lives  in  a  snug  frame-dwelling  ;  every  house  is  lined  with  tarred 
paper,  painted,  furnished  with  a  stove,  with  out-houses,  etc.,  com- 
plete ;  streets  laid  out,  and  the  foundations  of  these  habitations  reg- 
ularly plotted  thereon.  There  is  a  large  church  at  St.  Paul,  and  a 
less  pretentious  but  very  creditable  structure  of  the  same  character 
on  St.  George  ;  a  hospital  on  St.  Paul,  with  a  full  and  complete 
stock  of  drugs,  and  skilled  physicians  on  both  islands  to  take  care 
of  the  people,  free  of  cost.  There  is  a  school-house  on  each  island, 
in  which  teachers  are  also  paid  by  the  company  eight  months  in  the 
year,  to  instruct  the  youth,  while  the  Russian  Church  is  sustained 
entirely  by  the  pious  contributions  of  the  natives  themselves  on 
these  two  islands,  and  sustained  well  by  each  other.  There  are 
eighty  families,  or  eighty  houses,  on  St.  Paul,  in  the  village,  with 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  233 

twenty  or  twenty-four  such  bouses  to  as  many  families  at  St.  George, 
and  eight  other  structures.  The  large  ware-houses  and  salt-sheds 
of  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company,  built  by  skilful  mechanics,  as 
have  been  the  dwellings  just  referred  to,  are  also  neatly  painted  ; 
and,  taken  in  combination  with  the  other  features,  constitute  a  pict- 
ure fully  equal  to  the  average  presentation  of  any  one  of  our  small 
eastern  towns.  There  is  no  misery,  no  downcast,  dejected,  suffer- 
ing humanity  here  to-day.  These  Aleutes,  who  enjoy  as  a  price  of 
their  good  behavior,  the  sole  right  to  take  and  skin  seals  for  the 
company,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  people,  are  known  to  and  by 
their  less  fortunate  neighbors  elsewhere  in  Alaska  as  the  "Bogat- 
skie  Aloutov,"  or  the  "  rich  Aleutes."  The  example  of  the  agents  of 
the  Alaska  Commercial  Company,  on  both  islands,  from  the  begin- 
ning of  its  lease,  and  the  course  of  the  Treasury  agents  during  the 
last  eight  or  nine  years,  have  been  silent  but  powerful  promoters  of 
the  welfare  of  these  people.  They  have  maintained  perfect  order ; 
they  have  directed  neatness,  and  cleanliness,  and  stimulated  indus- 
try, such  as  those  natives  had  never  before  dreamed  of.*  The  chief 
source  of  sickness  used  to  arise  from  the  wretched  character  of  the 
barrabkies  in  which  they  lived  ;  but  it  was,  at  first,  a  very  difficult 
matter  to  get  frame-houses  to  supplant  successfully  the  sod- walled 
and  dirt-roofed  huts  of  the  islands. 

Many  experiments,  however,  were  made,  and  a  dozen  houses 
built,  ere  the  result  was  as  good  as  the  style  of  primitive  housing, 
when  it  had  been  well  done  and  kept  in  best  possible  repair.  In 
such  a  damp  climate,  naturally,  a  strong  moldy  smell  pervades  all 
inclosed  rooms  which  are  not  thoroughly  heated  and  daily  dried  by 

*  Surprise  has  often  been  genuine  among  those  who  inquire,  over  the  fact 
that  there  is  no  law  officer  here  at  either  village,  and  wonder  is  expressed  why 
such  provision  is  not  made  by  the  Government.  But  when  the  following  facts 
relative  to  this  subject  are  understood,  it  is  at  once  clear  that  a  justice  of  the 
peace  and  his  constabulary  would  be  entirely  useless  if  established  on  the 
seal-islands.  As  these  natives  live  here,  they  live  as  a  single  family  in  each 
settlement,  having  one  common  purpose  in  life  and  only  one  ;  what  one  na- 
tive does,  eats,  wears,  or  says,  is  known  at  once  to  all  the  others,  just  as  what- 
soever any  member  of  our  household  may  do  will  soon  be  known  to  us  all  who 
belong  to  its  organization  ;  hence  if  they  steal  or  quarrel  among  themselves, 
they  keep  the  matter  wholly  to  themselves,  and  settle  it  to  their  own  satisfac- 
tion. Were  there  rival  villages  on  the  islands  and  diverse  people  and  employ- 
ment, then  the  case  would  be  reversed,  and  the  need  of  legal  machinery  ap- 
parent. 


234  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

fires  ;  and,  in  the  spring  and  fall,  frost  works  through  and  drips 
and  trickles  like  rain  adown  the  walls.  The  present  frame-houses 
occupied  by  the  natives  owe  their  dryness,  their  warmth,  and  pro- 
tection from  the  piercing  ' '  boorgas "  to  the  liberal  use  of  stout 
tarred  paper  in  the  lining.  An  overpowering  mustiness  of  the  hall- 
ways, out-houses,  and,  in  fact,  every  roofed-in  spot,  where  a  stove  is 
not  regularly  used,  even  in  the  best-built  residences,  is  one  of  the 
first  disagreeable  sensations  which  the  new  arrivals  always  experi- 
ence when  they  take  up  their  quarters  here.  Perhaps,  if  it  were 
not  for  the  nasal  misery  that  floats  in  from  the  killing-grounds  to 
the  novice,  this  musty,  moldy  state  of  things  up  here  would  be  far 
more  acute,  as  an  annoyance,  than  it  is  now.  The  greater  grief 
seems  to  soon  fully  absorb  the  lesser  one  ;  at  least,  in  my  own  case, 
I  can  affirm  the  result. 

As  they  lived  in  early  time,  it  was  a  physical  impossibility  for 
them  to  increase  and  multiply  ;  *  but,  since  their  elevation  and  their 
sanitary  advancement  are  so  marked,  it  may  be  reasonably  expected 
that  those  people  for  all  time  to  come  will  at  least  hold  their  own, 
even  though  they  do  not  increase  to  any  remarkable  degree.  Per- 
haps it  is  better  that  they  should  not.  But  it  is  exceedingly  for- 
tunate that  they  do  sustain  themselves  so  as  to  be,  as  it  were,  a 
prosperous  corporate  factor,  entitled  to  the  exclusive  privilege  of 
labor  on  these  islands.  As  an  encouragement  for  their  good  be- 
havior the  Alaska  Commercial  Company,  in  pursuance  of  its  enlight- 
ened treatment  of  the  whole  subject,  so  handsomely  exhibited  by 
its  housing  of  these  people,  has  assured  them  that  so  long  as  they 
are  capable  and  willing  to  perform  the  labor  of  skinning  the  seal- 
catch  every  year,  so  long  will  they  enjoy  the  sole  privilege  of  par- 
ticipating in  that  toil  and  its  reward.  This  is  wise  on  the  part  of 
the  company,  and  it  is  exceedingly  happy  for  the  people. '  They 
are,  of  all  men,  especially  fitted  for  the  work  connected  with  the 
seal-business — no  comment  is  needed — nothing  better  in  the  way 

*  The  population  of  St.  Paul  in  1880  was  298.  Of  these,  14  were  whites 
(13  males  and  1  female),  128  male  Aleutians,  and  156  females.  On  St.  George 
we  have  92  souls :  4  white  males,  35  male  Aleutians,  and  53  females,  a  total 
population  on  these  islands  of  390.  This  is  an  increase  of  between  thirty  and 
forty  people  since  1873.  Prior  to  1873  they  had  neither  much  increased  nor 
diminished  for  fifty  years,  but  would  have  fallen  off  rapidly  (since  the  births 
were  never  equal  to  the  deaths)  had  not  recruits  been  regularly  drawn  from 
the  mainland  and  other  islands  every  season  when  the  ships  came  up. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  235 

of  manual  labor,  skilled  and  rapid,  could  be  rendered  by  any  body 
of  men,  equal  in  numbers,  living  under  the  same  circumstances,  all 
the  year  round.  They  appear  to  shake  off  the  periodic  lethargy  of 
winter  and  its  forced  inanition,  to  rush  with  the  coming  of  summer 
into  the  severe  exercise  and  duty  of  capturing,  killing,  and  skinning 
the  seals,  with  vigor  and  with  persistent  and  commendable  energy. 

To-day  only  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  population  are  de- 
scendants of  the  pioneers  who  were  brought  here  by  the  several 
Russian  companies  in  1787  and  1788  ;  a  colony  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty-seven  souls,  it  is  claimed,  principally  recruited  at  Oonalashka 
and  Atkha. 

The  Aleutes  on  the  islands  as  they  appear  to-day  have  been  so 
mixed  in  with  Russian,  Koloshian,  and  Kamschadale  blood  that 
they  present  characteristics,  in  one  way  or  another,  of  all  the  vari- 
ous races  of  men  from  the  negro  up  to  the  Caucasian.  The  pre- 
dominant features  among  them  are  small,  wide-set  eyes,  broad  and 
high  cheek-bones,  causing  the  jaw,  which  is  full  and  square,  to 
often  appear  peaked  ;  coarse,  straight,  black  hair,  small,  neatly- 
shaped  feet  and  hands,  together  with  brownish-yellow  complexion. 
The  men  will  average  in  stature  five  feet  four  or  five  inches  ;  the 
women  less  in  proportion,  although  there  are  exceptions  to  this 
rule  among  them,  some  being  over  six  feet  in  height,  and  others 
are  decided  dwarfs.  The  manners  and  customs  of  these  people  to- 
day possess  nothing  in  themselves  of  a  barbarous  or  remarkable 
character  aside  from  that  which  belongs  to  an  advanced  state  of 
semi-civilization.  They  are  exceedingly  polite  and  civil,  not  only 
in  their  business  with  the  agents  of  the  company  on  the  seal- 
islands,  but  among  themselves,  and  they  visit,  the  one  with  the 
other,  freely  and  pleasantly,  the  women  being  great  gossips  ;  but, 
on  the  whole,  their  intercourse  is  subdued,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  the  topics  of  conversation  are  few :  and,  judging  from  their 
silent  but  unconstrained  meetings,  they  seem  to  have  a  mutual 
knowledge,  as  if  by  sympathy,  as  to  what  may  be  occupying  each 
other's  minds,  rendering  speech  superfluous.  It  is  only  when  un- 
der the  influence  of  beer  or  strong  liquor  that  they  lose  their  natu- 
rally quiet  and  amiable  disposition.  They  then  relapse  into  low, 
drunken  orgies  and  loud,  brawling  noises.  *  Having  been  so  long 

*  This  evil  of  habitual  and  gross  intoxication  under  Russian  rule  was  not 
characteristic  of  these  islands  alone.  It  was  universal  throughout  Alaska.  Sir 


236  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

under  the  control  and  influence  of  the  Russians,  they  have  adopted 
many  Slavic  customs,  such  as  giving  birthday-dinners,  naming 
their  children,  etc.  They  are  remarkably  attached  to  their  church, 
and  no  other  form  of  religion  could  be  better  adapted  or  have  a 
firmer  hold  upon  the  sensibilities  of  the  people.  Their  inherent 
chastity  and  sobriety  cannot  be  commended.  They  have  long  since 
thrown  away  the  uncouth  garments  of  Russian  rule — those  shaggy 
dog-skin  caps,  with  coats  half  seal  and  half  sea-lion — for  a  complete 
outfit,  cap-d-pie,  such  as  our  own  people  buy  in  any  furnishing 
house,  the  same  boots,  socks,  underclothing,  and  clothing,  with 
ulsters  and  ulsterettes ;  but  the  violence  of  the  wind  prevents  their 
selecting  the  hats  of  our  fashion  and  sporting  fraternity.  As  for 
the  women,  they,  too,  have  kept  pace  and  even  advanced  to  the 
level  of  the  men,  for  in  these  lower  races  there  is  usually  more  vanity 
displayed  by  the  masculine  element  than  the  feminine,  according 
to  my  observation.  In  other  words,  I  have  noticed  a  greater  desire 
among  the  young  men  than  among  the  young  women  of  savage  and 
semi-civilized  people  to  be  gaily  dressed,  and  to  look  fine  ;  but  the 
visits  of  the  wives  of  our  treasury  officials  and  the  company's  agents 
to  these  islands  during  the  last  ten  years,  bringing  with  them  a  full 
outfit,  as  ladies  always  do,  of  everything  under  the  sun  that  women 
want  to  wear,  has  given  the  native  female  mind  an  undue  expansion 
up  there  and  stimulated  it  to  unwonted  activity.  They  watch  the 
cut  of  the  garments  and  borrow  the  patterns,  and  some  of  them  are 
very  expert  dressmakers  to-day.  When  the  Russians  controlled 
affairs,  the  women  were  the  hewers  of  drift-wood  and  the  draw- 
ers of  water.  At  St.  Paul  there  was  no  well  of  drinking-fluid 
about  the  village,  nor  within  half  a  mile  of  the  village.  There  was 
no  drinking-water  unless  it  was  caught  in  reservoirs,  and  the  cis- 
tern-water, owing  to  those  particles  of  seal-fat  soot  which  fall  upon 
the  roofs  of  the  houses,  is  rendered  undrinkable,  so  that  the  supply 
for  the  town  until  quite  recently  used  to  be  carried  by  women  from 
two  little  lakes  at  the  head  of  the  lagoon,  a  mile  and  a  half  as  the 

George  Simpson,  speaking  of  the  subject  when  in  Sitka,  April,  1842,  says: 
*•  Some  reformation  certainly  was  wanted  in  this  respect,  for  of  all  the 
drunken  as  well  as  of  all  the  dirty  places  that  I  had  visited,  New  Archangel 
(Sitka)  was  the  worst.  On  the  holidays  in  particular,  of  which,  Sundays  in- 
cluded, there  are  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  in  the  year,  men,  women,  and 
even  children  were  to  be  seen  staggering  about  in  all  directions." — Simpson: 
Journey  Around  the  World,  1841-42,  p.  88. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  237 

crow  flies  from  the  village,  and  right  under  Telegraph  HilL  This  is 
quite  a  journey,  and  \vhen  it  is  remembered  that  they  drink  so  much 
tea,  and  that  water  has  to  go  with  it,  some  idea  of  the  labor  of  the 
old  and  young  females  can  be  derived  from  an  inspection  of  the 
map.  Latterly,  within  the  last  four  or  five  years,  the  company  have 
opened  a  spring  less  than  half  a  mile  from  the  "  gorode,"  which 
they  have  plumbed  and  regulated,  so  that  it  supplies  them  with 
water  now  and  renders  the  labor  next  to  nothing,  compared  with 
all  former  difficulty.  But  to-day,  when  water  is  wanted  in  the 
Aleutian  houses  at  St.  Paul,  the  man  has  to  get  it — the  woman  does 
not ;  he  trudges  out  with  a  little  wooden  firkin  or  tub  on  his  back 
and  brings  it  to  the  house. 

Some  of  the  natives  save  their  money ;  yet  there  are  very  few 
among  them,  perhaps  not  more  than  a  dozen,  who  have  the  slight- 
est economical  tendency.  What  they  cannot  spend  for  luxuries, 
groceries,  and  tobacco  they  manage  to  get  away  with  at  the  gam- 
ing-table. They  have  their  misers  and  their  spendthrifts,  and  they 
have  the  usual  small  proportion  who  know  how  to  make  money, 
and  then  how  to  spend  it.  A  few  among  them  who  are  in  the  habit 
of  saving  have  opened  a  regular  bank-account  with  the  company. 
Some  of  them  have  to-day  two  or  three  thousand  dollars  saved, 
drawing  an  interest  of  nine  per  cent. 

When  the  ships  arrive  and  go,  the  severe  and  necessary  labor  of 
lightering  their  cargoes  off  and  on  from  the  roadsteads  where  they 
anchor  is  principally  performed  by  these  people,  and  they  are  paid 
so  much  a  day  for  their  labor :  from  fifty  cents  to  one  dollar,  accord- 
ing to  the  character  of  the  service  they  render.  This  operation, 
however,  is  much  dreaded  by  the  ship-captains  and  sea-going  men, 
whose  habits  of  discipline  and  automatic  regularity  and  effect  of 
working  render  them  severe  critics  and  impatient  coadjutors  of  the 
natives,  who,  to  tell  the  truth,  hate  to  do  anything  after  they  have 
pocketed  their  reward  for  sealing ;  and  when  they  do  labor  after 
this,  they  regard  it  as  an  act  of  very  great  condescension  on  their 
part. 

As  they  are  living  to-day  up  there,  there  is  no  restraint,  such  as 
the  presence  of  policemen,  courts  of  justice,  fines,  etc.,  which  we 
employ  for  the  suppression  of  disorder  and  maintenance  of  the  law 
in  our  own  land.  They  understand  that  if  it  is  necessary  to  make 
them  law-abiding,  and  to  punish  crime,  such  officers  will  be  among 
them,  and  hence,  perhaps,  is  due  the  fact  that  from  the  time  that 


238  OUK   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

the  Alaska  Commercial  Company  has  taken  charge,  in  1870,  there 
has  not  been  one  single  occasion  where  the  simplest  functions  of  a 
justice  of  the  peace  would  or  could  have  been  called  in  to  settle  any 
difficulty.  This  speaks  eloquently  for  their  docile  nature  and  their 
amiable  disposition. 

These  people  are  singularly  affectionate  and  indulgent  toward 
their  children.  There  are  no  "  bald-headed  "  tyrants  in  our  homes 
as  arbitrary  and  ruthless  in  their  rule  as  are  those  snuffly  babies 
and  young  children  on  the  Seal  Islands.  While  it  is  very  young, 
the  Aleut  gives  up  everything  to  the  caprice  of  his  child,  and  never 
crosses  its  path  or  thwarts  its  desire  ;  the  "  deetiah  "  literally  take 
charge  of  the  house  ;  but  as  soon  as  these  callow  members  of  the 
family  become  strong  enough  to  bear  burdens  and  to  labor, 
generally  between  twelve  and  fifteen  years  of  age,  they  are  then 
pressed  into  hard  service  relentlessly  by  their  hitherto  indulgent 
parents.  The  extremes  literally  meet  in  this  application. 

They  have  another  peculiarity :  when  they  are  ill,  slightly  or 
seriously,  no  matter  which,  they  maintain  or  affect  a  stolid  resigna- 
tion, and  are  patient  to  positive  apathy.  This  is  not  due  to  defi- 
ciency of  nervous  organization,  because  those  among  them  who 
exhibit  examples  of  intense  liveliness  and  nervous  activity  behave 
just  as  stolidly  when  ill  as  their  more  lymphatic  townsmen  do. 
Boys  and  girls,  men  and  women,  all  alike,  are  patient  and  resigned 
when  ailing  and  under  treatment ;  but  it  is  a  bad  feature  after  all, 
inasmuch  as  it  is  well-nigh  impossible  to  rally  a  very  sick  man  who 
himself  has  no  hope,  and  who  seems  to  mutely  deprecate  every 
effort  to  save  his  life.  The  principal  cause  of  death  among  the 
people,  by  natural  infirmity,  on  the  Seal  Islands  is  the  varying 
forms  of  consumption  and  bronchitis,  always  greatly  aggravated  by 
that  inherited  scrofulous  taint  or  stain  of  blood  which  was,  in  one 
way  or  another,  flowing  through  the  veins  of  their  recent  progeni- 
tors, both  here  and  throughout  the  Aleutian  Islands.  There  is 
nothing  worth  noticing  in  the  line  of  nervous  diseases,  unless  it  be 
now  and  then  the  record  of  a  case  of  alcoholism  superinduced  by 
excessive  quass  drinking.  The  "  makoolah  "  intemperance  among 
these  people,  which  was  not  suppressed  until  1876,  was  a  chief 
factor  to  an  immediate  death  of  infants  ;  for,  when  they  were  at 
the  breast,  their  mothers  would  drink  quass  to  intoxication,  and  the 
stomachs  of  newly-born  Aleutes  or  Creoles  could  not  stand  the 
infliction  which  they  received,  even  second-hand.  Had  it  not  been 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  239 

for  this  wretched  spectacle,  so  often  presented  to  my  eyes  in  1872- 
73,  I  should  hardly  have  taken  the  active  steps  which  I  did  to  put 
the  nuisance  down  ;  for  it  involved  me,  at  first,  in  a  bitter  personal 
controversy,  which,  although  I  knew  at  the  outset  was  inevitable, 
still  it  weighed  nothing  in  the  scales  against  the  evil  itself.  A  few 
febrile  disorders  are  occurring,  yet  they  yield  readily  to  good 
treatment. 

The  inherent  propensity  of  man  to  gamble  is  developed  here  to 
a  very  appreciable  degree,  but  it  in  no  way  whatever  suggests  the 
strange  gaming  love  and  infatuation  with  which  all  Indians  and 
Eskimo  elsewhere  of  Alaska  are  possessed.  The  chief  delight  of 
men  and  boys  in  the  two  villages  is  to  stand  on  the  street  cor- 
ners "  pitching  "  half-dollars.  So  devoted,  indeed,  have  I  found 
the  native  mind  to  this  hap-hazard  sport,  that  frequently  I  would 
detect  groups  of  them  standing  out  in  pelting  gales  of  wind  and  of 
rain,  "  shying  "  silver  coins  at  the  little  dirt-driven  pegs.  A  few 
of  them,  men  and  women,  play  cards  with  much  skill  and  intelli- 
gence. 

One  of  the  peculiarities  *  of  these  people  is  that  they  seldom 
undress  when  they  go  to  bed — neither  the  men,  women,  nor  chil- 
dren ;  and  also  that  at  any  and  all  hours  of  the  night  during  the 
summer  season,  when  I  have  passed  in  and  out  of  the  village  to  and 
from  the  rookeries,  I  always  found  several  of  the  natives  squatting 
before  their  house-doors  or  leaning  against  the  walls,  stupidly  star- 
ing out  into  the  misty  darkness  of  the  fog,  or  chatting  one  with  the 
other  over  their  pipes.  A  number  of  the  inhabitants,  by  this  dis- 
position, are  always  up  and  around  throughout  the  settlement 
during  the  entire  night  and  day.  In  olden  times,  and  even  recently, 

*  I  was  told  by  a  very  bright  Russian,  who  spent  a  season  here,  1871-72, 
as  special  agent  of  the  Treasury  Department,  that  the  Aleutian  ancestors  of 
these  people  when  they  were  converted  and  baptized  into  the  Greek  Catholic 
Church  received  their  names,  brand  new,  from  the  fertile  brains  of  priests, 
who,  after  exhausting  the  common  run  of  Muscovitic  titles,  such  as  our  Smiths 
and  Joneses,  were  compelled  to  fall  back  upon  some  personal  characteristics  of 
the  new  claimant  for  civilized  nomenclature.  Thus  we  have  to-day  on  the 
Seal  Islands  a  "  Stepan  Bayloglazov,"  or,  "Son  of  a  White  Eye,"  "  Oseep 
Baizyahzeekov,"  or  "  Son  of  Man  without  a  Tongue."  A  number  of  the  old 
Russian  governors  and  admirals  of  the  imperial  navy  are  represented  here  by 
their  family  names,  though  I  do  not  think,  from  my  full  acquaintance  with 
the  namesakes,  that  the  distinguished  owners  in  the  first  place  had  anything 
to  do  with  their  physical  embodiment  on  the  Pribylov  Islands. 


240  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

these  involuntary  sentinels  of  the  night  have  often  startled  the 
whole  village  by  shouting  at  the  top  of  their  voices  the  pleasant 
and  electric  announcement  of  the  "  ship's  light ! "  or  they  have 
frozen  it  with  superstitious  horror  at  daybreak  by  then  reciting 
some  ghostly  vision  that  had  appeared  to  them. 

The  urchins  play  marbles,  spin  tops,  and  fly  kites,  intermittently, 
with  all  the  feverish  energy  displayed  by  such  youth  of  our  own  sur- 
roundings ;  they  frolic  at  base-ball,  and  use  "  shinny  "  sticks  with 
great  volubility  and  activity.  The  girls  are,  however,  much  more 
repressed,  and,  though  they  have  a  few  games,  and  play  quietly 
with  quaintly  dressed  dolls,  yet  they  do  not  appear  to  be  possessed 
of  that  usual  feminine  animation  so  conspicuously  marked  in  our 
home-life. 

The  attachment  which  the  natives  have  for  their  respective  islands 
was  well  shown  to  me  in  1874.  Then  a  number  of  St.  George  peo- 
ple were  taken  over  to  St.  Paul,  temporarily,  to  do  the  killing  inci- 
dental to  a  reduction  of  the  quota  of  twenty -five  thousand  for  their 
island  and  a  corresponding  increase  at  St.  Paul.  They  became 
homesick  immediately,  and  were  never  tired  of  informing  the  St. 
Paul  natives  that  St.  George,  was  a  far  handsomer  and  more  enjoy- 
able island  to  live  upon  ;  that  walking  over  the  long  sand  reaches 
of  "  Pavel "  made  their  legs  grievously  weary,  and  that  the  whole 
effect  of  this  change  of  residence  was  "ochen  scootchnie."  Natu- 
rally the  ire  of  the  St.  Paul  people  rose  at  once,  and  they  retorted 
in  kind,  indicating  the  rocky  surface  of  St.  George  and  its  great  in- 
feriority as  a  seal-island.  I  was  surprised  at  the  genuine  feeling  on 
both  sides,  because,  as  far  as  I  could  judge  from  a  residence  on 
each  island,  it  was  a  clear  case  of  tweedle-dee  and  tweedle-dum  be- 
tween them  as  to  opportunities  and  climate  necessary  for  a  pleas- 
urable existence.  The  natives  themselves  are  of  one  and  common 
stock,  though  the  number  of  Creoles  on  St.  George  is  relatively 
much  larger  than  on  St.  Paul.  Consequently  the  tone  of  the  St. 
George  village  is  rather  more  sprightly  and  vivacious. 

The  question  is  naturally  asked,  How  do  these  people  employ 
themselves  during  the  long  nine  months  of  every  year  after  the 
close  of  the  sealing  season  and  until  it  begins  again,  when  they 
have  little  or  absolutely  nothing  to  do?  It  may  be  answered  that 
they  simply  vegetate,  or,  in  other  words,  are  entirely  idle,  mentally 
and  physically,  during  most  of  this  period.  But,  to  their  credit, 
let  it  be  said  that  mischief  does  not  employ  their  idle  hands.  They 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  241 

are  passive  killers  of  time,  drinking  tea  and  sleeping,  with  a  few 
disagreeable  exceptions,  such  as  the  gamblers.  There  are  a  half- 
dozen  of  these  characters  at  St.  Paul,  and  perhaps  as  many  at  St. 
George,  who  spend  whole  nights  at  their  sittings,  even  during  the 
sealing  season,  playing  games  of  cards  taught  by  Russians  and  per- 
sons who  have  been  on  the  island  since  the  transfer  of  the  territory  ; 
but  the  majority  of  the  men,  women,  and  children,  not  being  com- 
pelled to  exert  themselves  to  obtain  any  of  the  chief  or  even  the 
least  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  such  as  tea  and  hard  bread,  sleep 
the  greater  portion  of  the  time,  when  not  busy  in  eating  and  in  the 
daily  observances  of  that  routine  belonging  to  the  Greek  Catholic 
Church.  The  teachings,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  the  religious  ob- 
servances of  this  faith  alone  preserve  these  people  from  absolute  stag- 
nation. In  obedience  to  its  promptings  they  gladly  attend  church 
very  regularly.  They  also  make  and  receive  calls  on  their  saints' 
days,  and  such  days  are  very  numerous.  The  natives  add  to  these 
entertainments  of  their  saints' day  and  birth-festivals,  or  "Eman- 
nimiks,"  the  music  of  accordeons  and  violins.  Upon  the  former 
and  its  variation,  the  concertina,  they  play  a  number  of  airs,  and 
are  real  fond  of  the  noise.  A  great  many  of  the  women  in  particu- 
lar can  render  indifferently  a  limited  selection  of  tunes,  many  of 
which  are  the  old  battle-songs,  so  popular  during  the  rebellion, 
woven  into  weird  Russian  waltzes  and  love-ditties,  which  they  have 
jointly  gathered  from  their  former  masters  and  our  soldiers,  who 
were  quartered  here  in  1869.  From  the  Russians  and  the  troops 
also  they  have  learned  to  dance  various  figures,  and  have  been 
taught  to  waltz.  These  dances,  however,  the  old  folks  do  not  enjoy 
very  much.  They  will  come  in  and  sit  around  and  look  at  the 
young  performers  with  stolid  indifference ;  but  if  they  manage  to 
get  a  strong  current  of  tea  setting  in  their  direction,  nicely  sugared 
and  toned  up,  they  revive  and  join  in  the  mirth.  In  old  times  they 
never  danced  here  unless  they  were  drunk,  and  it  was  the  principal 
occupation  of  the  amiable  and  mischievous  treasury  agents  and 
others  in  those  early  days  to  stimulate  this  beery  fun. 

Seal-meat  is  their  staple  food,  and  in  the  village  of  St.  Paul 
they  consume  on  an  average  fully  five  hundred  pounds  a  day  the 
year  round,  and  they  are,  by  the  permission  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  allowed  occasionally  to  kill  five  thousand  or  six  thousand 
seal-pups,  or  an  average  of  twenty-two  to  thirty  young  "kotickie" 
for  each  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  settlements.  The  pups  will 
16 


242  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

dress  ten  pounds  each.  This  shows  an  average  consumption  of 
nearly  six  hundred  pounds  of  seal-meat  by  each  person,  large  and 
small,  during  the  year.  To  this  diet  the  natives  add  a  great  deal 
of  butter  and  many  sweet  crackers.  They  are  passionately  fond  of 
butter.  No  epicure  at  home  or  butter-taster  in  Goshen  knows  or 
appreciates  that  article  better  than  these  people  do.  If  they  could 
get  all  that  they  desire,  they  would  consume  one  thousand  pounds 
of  butter  and  five  hundred  pounds  of  sweet  crackers  every  week, 
and  indefinite  quantities  of  sugar.  The  sweetest  of  all  sweet  teeth 
are  found  in  the  jaw  of  the  ordinary  Aleut.  But  it  is  of  course  un- 
wise to  allow  them  full  swing  in  this  matter,  for  they  would  turn 
their  stomachs  into  fermenting-tanks  if  they  had  free  access  to  an 
unlimited  supply  of  saccharine  food.  The  company  issues  them 
two  hundred  pounds  a  week.  If  unable  to  get  sweet  crackers, 
they  will  eat  about  three  hundred  pounds  of  hard  or  pilot  bread 
every  week,  and,  in  addition  to  this,  nearly  seven  hundred  pounds 
of  flour  at  the  same  time.  Of  tobacco  they  are  allowed  fifty  pounds 
per  week  ;  candles,  seventy-five  pounds  ;  rice,  fifty  pounds.  They 
burn,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  kerosene-oil  here  to  the  exclusion  of 
that  seal-fat  which  literally  overruns  the  island.  They  ignite  and 
consume  over  six  hundred  gallons  of  kerosene-oil  a  year  in  the  vil- 
lage of  St.  Paul  alone.  They  do  not  fancy  vinegar  very  much ;  per- 
haps fifty  gallons  a  year  are  used  up  there.  Mustard  and  pepper  are 
sparingly  used,  one  to  one  pound  and  a  half  a  week  for  the  whole 
village.  Beans  they  peremptorily  reject ;  for  some  reason  or  other 
they  cannot  be  induced  to  use  them.  Those  who  go  about  the  ves- 
sels contract  a  taste  for  split-pea  soup,  and  a  few  of  them  are  sold 
in  the  village-store.  Salt  meat,  beef  or  pork,  they  will  take  reluct- 
antly, if  it  is  given  to  and  pressed  upon  them  ;  but  they  will  never 
buy  it.  I  remember,  in  this  connection,  seeing  two  barrels  of  prime 
salt  pork  and  a  barrel  of  prime  mess  salt  beef  opened  in  the  com- 
pany's store  shortly  after  my  arrival  in  1872,  and,  though  the  peo- 
ple of  the  village  were  invited  to  help  themselves,  I  think  I  am  right 
in  saying  these  three  barrels  were  not  emptied  when  I  left  the  isl- 
and in  1873.  They  use  a  very  little  coffee  during  the  year — not  more 
than  one  hundred  pounds — but  of  tea  a  great  deal.  I  do  not  know 
exactly — I  cannot  find  among  my  notes  a  record  as  to  that  article 
— but  I  can  say  that  they  each  drink  not  less  than  a  gallon  of  tea 
per  diem.  The  amount  of  this  beverage  which  they  sip  from  the 
time  they  rise  in  the  morning  until  they  go  to  bed  late  at  night  is 


AVONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  243 

astounding.  Their  "samovars,"  and  latterly  the  regular  tea-kettles 
of  our  American  make,  are  bubbling  and  boiling  from  the  moment 
the  housewife  bestirs  herself  at  daybreak  until  the  fire  goes  out  when 
she  sleeps.  It  should  be  stated  in  this  connection  that  they  are 
supplied  with  a  regular  allowance  of  coal  every  year  by  the  com- 
pany, gratis,  each  family  being  entitled  to  a  certain  amount,  which 
alone,  if  economically  used,  keeps  them  warm  all  winter  in  their 
new  houses  ;  but  for  those  who  are  extravagant,  and  are  itching  to 
spend  their  extra  wages,  an  extra  supply  is  always  kept  in  the  store- 
houses of  the  company  for  sale.  Their  appreciation  of  and  desire 
to  possess  all  the  canned  fruit  that  is  landed  from  the  steamer  is 
marked  to  a  great  degree.  If  they  had  the  opportunity,  I  doubt 
whether  a  single  family  on  that  island  to-day  would  hesitate  to 
bankrupt  itself  in  purchasing  this  commodity.  Potatoes  they  some- 
times demand,  as  well  as  onions,  and  perhaps  if  these  vegetables 
could  be  brought  here  and  kept  to  an  advantage  the  people  would 
soon  become  very  fond  of  them.  Most  of  these  articles  of  food 
mentioned  heretofore  are  purchased  by  the  natives  in  the  com- 
pany's store  at  either  island.  This  food  and  the  wearing  apparel, 
crockery,  etc.,  which  the  company  bring  up  here  for  the  use  of  the 
people,  is  sold  to  them  at  the  exact  cost  price  of  the  same,  plus  the 
expenses  of  transportation,  and  many  times  within  my  knowledge 
they  have  bought  goods  here  at  these  stores  at  less  rates  than  they 
would  have  been  subjected  to  in  San  Francisco.  The  object  of  the 
company  is  not,  under  any  circumstances,  to  make  a  single  cent  of 
profit  out  of  the  sale  of  these  goods  to  the  natives.  They  aim  only 
to  clear  the  cost  and  no  more.  Instructions  to  this  effect  are  given 
to  its  agents,  while  those  of  the  Government  are  called  upon  to  take 
notice  of  the  fact. 

The  store  at  St.  Paul,  as  well  as  that  at  St.  George,  has  its  regu- 
lar annual  "  opening  "  after  the  arrival  of  the  steamer  in  the  spring, 
to  which  the  natives  seem  to  pay  absorbed  attention.  They  crowd 
the  buildings  day  and  night,  eagerly  looking  for  all  the  novelties  in 
food  and  apparel.  These  slouchy  men  and  shawl-hooded  women, 
who  pack  the  area  before  the  counters,  appear  to  feel  as  deep  an 
interest  in  the  process  of  shopping  as  the  most  enthusiastic  vota- 
ries of  that  business  do  in  our  own  streets.  It  certainly  seems  to 
give  them  the  greatest  satisfaction  of  their  lives  on  the  Pribylov 
Islands. 

With  regard  to  ourselves  up  here  in  so  far  as  a  purely  physical 


244  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

existence  goes,  the  American  method  of  living  on  and  in  the  climate 
of  the  Pribylov  Islands  is  highly  conducive  to  strength  and  health. 
Tea  and  coffee,  seasoned  with  condensed  milk  and  lump  sugar  ;  hot 
biscuits,  cakes  and  waffles ;  potatoes,  served  in  every  method  of 
cookery ;  salt  salmon,  codfish,  and  corned  beef  ;  mess  pork,  and, 
once  a  week,  a  fresh  roast  of  beef  or  steaks  ;  all  the  canned  vege- 
tables and  fruits ;  all  the  potted  sauces,  jams  and  jellies  ;  pies,  pud- 
dings and  pastries ;  and  the  exhaustive  list  of  purely  seafaring 
dishes,  such  as  pea  and  bean,  barley  and  rice  soups,  curries  and 
maccaroni ;  these  constitute  the  staples  and  many  of  the  luxuries  with 
which  the  agents  of  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company  prolong  their 
existence  while  living  here  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties,  and  to 
which  they  welcome  their  guests  for  discussion  and  glad  digestion. 

A  piano  on  St.  Paul,  in  the  company  house ;  an  assorted  library, 
embracing  over  one  thousand  volumes,  selected  from  standard  au- 
thors in  fiction,  science,  and  history,  together  with  many  other  un- 
expected adjuncts  of  high  comfort  for  body  and  soul,  will  be  found 
on  these  islands,  wholly  unlooked  for  by  those  who  first  set  foot 
upon  them.  A  small  Russian  printed  library  has  also  been  given 
by  the  company  to  the  natives  on  each  island  for  their  special  en- 
tertainment. The  rising  generation  of  sealers,  however,  if  they  read 
at  all,  will  read  our  own  typography. 

Before  leaving  the  consideration  of  these  people,  who  are  so  in- 
timately associated  with  and  blended  into  the  business  on  these 
islands,  it  may  be  well  to  clearly  define  the  relation  existing  between 
them,  the  Government,  and  the  company  leasing  the  islands.  When 
Congress  granted  to  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company  of  San  Fran- 
cisco the  exclusive  right  of  taking  a  certain  number  of  fur-seals 
every  year,  for  a  period  of  twenty  years  on  these  islands,  it  did  so 
with  several  reservations  and  conditions,  which  were  confided  in 
their  detail  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  This  officer  and  the 
president  of  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company  agreed  upon  a  code 
of  regulations  which  should  govern  their  joint  action  in  regard  to 
the  natives.  It  was  a  simple  agreement  that  these  people  should 
have  a  certain  amount  of  dried  salmon  furnished  them  for  food 
every  year,  a  certain  amount  of  fuel,  a  school-house,  and  the  right 
to  go  to  and  come  from  the  islands  as  they  chose  ;  and  also  the 
right  to  work  or  not,  understanding  that  in  case  they  did  not  work, 
their  places  would  and  could  be  supplied  by  other  people  who  would 
work. 


\\  ONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  245 

The  company,  however,  has  gone  far  beyond  this  exaction  of  the 
Government ;  it  has  added  an  inexpressible  boon  of  comfort,  in  the 
formation  of  those  dwellings  now  occupied  by  the  natives,  which  was 
not  expressed  nor  thought  of  at  the  time  of  the  granting  of  the 
lease.  An  enlightened  business-policy  suggested  to  the  company 
that  it  would  be  much  better  for  the  natives,  and  much  better  for 
company  too,  if  these  people  were  taken  out  of  their  filthy,  un- 
wholesome hovels,  put  into  habitable  dwellings,  and  taught  to  live 
cleanly,  for  the  simple  reason  that  by  so  doing  the  natives,  living  in 
this  improved  condition,  would  be  able  physically  and  mentally, 
every  season  when  the  sealing  work  began,  to  come  out  from  their 
long  inanition  and  go  to  work  at  once  with  vigor  and  energetic  per- 
sistency. The  sequel  has  proved  the  wisdom  of  the  company. 

Before  this  action  on  their  part,  it  was  physically  impossible  for 
the  inhabitants  of  St.  Paul  or  St.  George  Islands  to  take  the  lawful 
quota  of  one  hundred  thousand  seal-skins  annually  in  less  than 
three  or  four  working  months.  They  take  them  in  less  than  thirty 
working  days  now  with  the  same  number  of  men.  What  is  the 
gain  ?  Simply  this,  and  it  is  everything  :  the  fur-seal  skin,  from  the 
14th  of  June,  when  it  first  arrives,  as  a  rule,  up  to  the  1st  of  Au- 
gust, is  in  prime  condition  ;  from  that  latter  date  until  the  middle  of 
October  it  is  rapidly  deteriorating,  to  slowly  appreciate  again  in 
value  as  it  sheds  and  renews  its  coat ;  so  much  so  that  it  is  prac- 
tically worthless  in  the  markets  of  the  world.  Hence,  the  catch 
taken  by  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company  every  year  is  a  prime  one, 
first  to  last — there  are  no  low-grade  "stagey"  skins  in  it ;  but  un- 
der the  old  regimen,  three-fourths  of  the  skins  were  taken  in 
August,  in  September  and  even  in  October,  and  were  not  worth 
their  transportation  to  London.  Comment  on  this  is  unnecessary  ; 
it  is  the  contrast  made  between  a  prescient  business-policy,  and  one 
that  was  as  shiftless  and  improvident  as  language  can  well  devise.* 


*  Living  as  the  Seal-islanders  do,  and  doing  what  they  do,  the  seal's  life  is 
naturally  their  great  study  and  objective  point.  It  nourishes  and  sustains 
them.  Without  it  they  say  they  could  not  live,  and  they  tell  the  truth.  Hence, 
their  attention  to  the  few  simple  requirements  of  the  law,  so  wise  in  its  provi- 
sions, is  not  forced  or  constrained,  but  is  continuous.  Self-interest  in  this  re- 
spect appeals  to  them  keenly  and  eloquently.  They  know  everything  that  is 
done  and  everything  that  is  said  by  anybody  and  by  everybody  in  their  little 
community.  Every  seal-drive  that  is  made,  and  every  skin  that  is  taken,  is 
recorded  and  accounted  for  by  them  to  their  chiefs  and  their  church,  when 


246  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

The  company  found  so  much  difficulty  in  getting  the  youth  of 
the  villages  to  attend  their  schools,  taught  by  our  own  people,  es- 
pecially brought  up  there  and  hired  by  the  company,  that  they 
have  adopted  the  plan  of  bringing  one  or  two  of  the  brightest  boys 
down  every  year  and  putting  them  into  our  schools,  so  that  they 
may  grow  up  here  and  be  educated,  in  order  to  return  and  serve  as 
teachers  there.  This  policy  is  warranted  by  the  success  which  at- 
tended an  experiment  made  at  the  time  when  I  was  up  there  first, 
whereby  a  son  of  the  chief  was  carried  down  and  over  to  Rutland,  Vi, 
for  his  education,  remained  there  four  years,  then  returned  and  took 
charge  of  the  school  on  St.  Paul,  which  he  has  had  until  recently, 
with  the  happiest  results  in  increased  attendance  and  attention  from 
the  children.  But,  of  course,  so  long  as  the  Eussian  Church  service  is 
conducted  in  the  Russian  language,  we  will  find  on  the  islands  more 
Russian-speaking  people  than  our  own.  The  non-attendance  at 
school  was  not  and  is  not  to  be  ascribed  to  indisposition  on  the 
part  of  the  children  and  parents.  One  of  the  oldest  and  most  in- 
telligent of  the  natives  told  me,  explanatory  of  their  feeling  and 
consequent  action,  that  he  did  not,  nor  did  his  neighbors,  have  any 
objection  to  the  attendance  of  their  children  on  our  English  school ; 
but,  if  their  boys  and  young  men  neglected  their  Russian  lessons 
they  knew  not  who  were  going  to  take  their  places,  when  they  died, 
in  his  church,  at  the  christenings,  and  at  their  burial.  To  any  one 
familiar  with  the  teachings  of  the  Greek  Catholic  faith,  the  objec- 
tion of  old  Philip  Volkov  seems  reasonable.  I  hope,  therefore,  that, 
in  the  course  of  time,  the  Russian  Church  service  may  be  voiced  in 
English  ;  not  that  I  want  to  substitute  any  other  religion  for  it — 
far  from  it ;  in  my  opinion  it  is  the  best  one  we  could  have  for 
these  people — but  until  this  substitution  of  our  language  for  the 
Russian  is  done,  no  very  satisfactory  work,  in  my  opinion,  will 
be  accomplished  in  the  way  of  an  English  education  on  the  Seal 
Islands. 

The  Alaska  Commercial  Company  deserves  and  will  receive  a 
brief  but  comprehensive  notice  at  this  point.  In  order  that  we  may 

they  make  up  their  tithing-roll  at  the  close  of  each  day's  labor.  Nothing  can 
come  to  the  islands,  by  day  or  by  night,  without  being  seen  by  them  and 
spoken  of.  I  regard  the  presence  of  these  people  on  the  islands  at  the  trans- 
ier,  and  their  subsequent  retention  and  entailment  in  connection  with  the  seal- 
business,  as  an  exceedingly  good  piece  of  fortune,  alike  advantageous  to  the 
Government,  to  the  company,  and  to  themselves. 


WONDERFUL    SEAL   ISLANDS.  247 

follow  it  to  these  islands,  and  clearly  and  correctly  appreciate  the 
circumstance  which  gave  it  footing  and  finally  the  control  of  the 
business,  I  will  pass  back  and  review  a  chain  of  evidence  adduced 
in  this  direction  from  the  time  of  our  first  occupation,  in  1867,  of 
the  territory  of  Alaska. 

It  will  be  remembered  by  many  people,  that  when  we  were  rati- 
fying the  negotiation  between  our  Government  and  that  of  Russia, 
it  became  painfully  apparent  that  nobody  in  this  country  knew 
anything  about  the  subject  of  Russian  America.  Every  school-boy 
knew  where  it  was  located,  but  no  professor  or  merchant,  however 
wise  or  shrewd,  knew  what  was  in  it.  Accordingly,  immediately 
after  the  purchase  was  made  and  the  formal  transfer  effected,  a  large 
number  of  energetic  and  speculative  men,  some  coming  from  New 
England  even,  but  most  of  them  residents  of  the  Pacific  coast, 
turned  their  attention  to  Alaska.  They  went  up  to  Sitka  in  a  little 
fleet  of  sail  and  steam  vessels,  but  among  their  number  it  appears 
there  were  only  two  of  our  citizens  who  knew  of  or  had  the  faintest 
appreciation  as  to  the  value  of  the  Seal  Islands.  One  of  these,  Mr. 
H.  M.  Hutchinson,  a  native  of  New  Hampshire,  and  the  other,  a  Cap- 
tain Ebenezer  Morgan,  a  native  of  Connecticut,  turned  their  faces 
in  1868  toward  them  ;  also  an  ex-captain  of  the  Russian-American 
Company,  Gustav  Niebaum,  who  became  a  citizen  immediately  after 
the  transfer,  knowing  of  their  value,  chartered  a  small  vessel,  and 
hastened  so  as  to  land  there  a  few  days  even  before  Captain  Morgan 
arrived  in  the  Peru,  a  whaling  ship. 

Mr.  Hutchinson  gathered  his  information  at  Sitka — Captain  Mor- 
gan had  gained  his  years  before  by  experience  on  the  South  Sea  seal- 
ing grounds.  Mr.  Hutchinson  represented  a  company  of  San  Fran- 
cisco or  California  capitalists  when  he  landed  on  St.  Paul ;  Captain 
Morgan  represented  another  company  of  New  London  capitalists 
and  whaling  merchants.  'They  arrived  almost  simultaneously, 
Morgan  a  few  days  or  weeks  anterior  to  Hutchinson.  He  had 
quietly  enough  commenced  to  survey  and  pre-empt  the  rookeries  on 
the  islands,  or,  in  other  words,  the  work  of  putting  stakes  down 
and  recording  the  fact  of  claiming  the  ground,  as  miners  do  in  the 
mountains  ;  but  later  agreed  to  co-operate  with  Mr.  Hutchinsou. 
These  two  parties  passed  that  season  of  1868  in  exclusive  control 
of  those  islands,  and  they  took  an  immense  number  of  seals.  They 
took  so  many  that  it  occurred  to  Mr.  Hutchinson  unless  something 
was  done  to  check  and  protect  these  wonderful  rookeries,  which  he 


248  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

saw  here  for  the  first  time,  and  which  filled  him  with  amazement, 
that  they  would  be  wiped  out  by  the  end  of  another  season  ;  al- 
though he  was  the  gainer  then,  and  would  be  perhaps  at  the  end, 
if  they  should  be  thus  eliminated,  yet  he  could  not  forbear  say- 
ing to  himself  that  it  was  wrong  and  should  not  be.  To  this  Cap- 
tain Morgan  also  assented,  and  Captain  Niebaum  joined  with  them 
cordially.  In  the  fall  of  1868  Mr.  Hutchinson  and  Captain  Mor- 
gan, by  their  personal  efforts,  interested  and  aroused  the  Treas- 
ury Department  and  Congress,  so  that  a  special  resolution  was 
enacted  declaring  the  Seal  Islands  a  governmental  reservation, 
and  prohibiting  any  and  all  parties  from  taking  seals  thereon 
until  further  action  by  Congress.  In  1869,  seals  were  taken  on 
those  islands,  under  the  direction  of  the  Treasury  Department, 
for  the  subsistence  of  the  natives  only  ;  '  and  in  1870  Congress 
passed  the  present  law,  for  the  protection  of  the  fur-bearing  animals 
on  those  islands,  and  under  its  provisions,  and  in  accordance  there- 
with, after  an  animated  and  bitter  struggle  in  competition,  the 
Alaska  Commercial  Company,  of  which  Mr.  Hutchinson  was  a  prime 
organizer,  secured  the  award  and  received  the  franchise  which  it 
now  enjoys  and  will  enjoy  for  some  time  yet.  The  company  is  an 
American  corporation,  with  a  charter,  rules,  and  regulations.  They 
employ  a  fleet  of  vessels,  sail  and  steam  :  four  steamers,  a  dozen  or 
fifteen  ships,  barks,  and  sloops.  Their  principal  occupation  and 
attention  is  given  naturally  to  the  Seal  Islands,  though  they  have 
station  sscattered  over  the  Aleutian  Islands  and  that  portion  of 
Alaska  west  and  north  of  Kadiak.  No  post  of  theirs  is  less  than 
five  hundred  or  six  hundred  miles  from  Sitka. 

Outside  of  the  Seal  Islands  all  trade  in  this  territory  of  Alaska 
is  entirely  open  to  the  public.  There  is  no  need  of  protecting  the 
fur-bearing  animals  elsewhere,  unless  it  may  be  by  a  few  whole- 
some general  restrictions  in  regard  to  the  sea-otter  chase.  The 
country  itself  protects  the  animals  on  the  mainland  and  other 
islands  by  its  rugged,  forbidding,  and  inhospitable  exterior. 

The  treasury  officials  on  the  Seal  Islands  are  charged  with  the 
careful  observance  of  every  act  of  the  company  ;  a  copy  of  the  lease 
and  its  covenant  is  conspicuously  posted  in  their  office  ;  is  trans- 
lated into  Russian,  and  is  familiar  to  all  the  natives.  The  company 
directs  its  own  labor,  in  accordance  with  the  law,  as  it  sees  fit ;  se- 
lects its  time  of  working,  etc.  The  natives  themselves  work  under 
the  direction  of  their  own  chosen  foremen,  or  "  toyones."  These 


WONDEKFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  249 

chiefs  call  out  the  men  at  the  break  of  every  working-day,  divide 
them  into  detachments  according  to  the  nature  of  the  service,  and 
order  their  working.  All  communications  with  the  laborers  on 
the  sealing-ground  and  the  company  passes  through  their  hands, 
those  chiefs  having  every  day  an  understanding  with  the  agent 
of  the  company  as  to  his  wishes,  and  they  govern  themselves 
thereby. 

The  company  pays  forty  cents  for  the  labor  of  taking  each  skin. 
The  natives  take  the  skins  on  the  ground,  each  man  tallying  his 
work  and  giving  the  result  at  the  close  of  the  day  to  his  chief  or 
foreman.  When  the  skins  are  brought  up  and  counted  into  the 
salt-houses,  where  the  agent  of  the  company  receives  them  from  the 
hands  of  the  natives,  the  two  tallies  usually  correspond  very  closely, 
if  they  are  not  entirely  alike.  When  the  quota  of  skins  is  taken,  at 
the  close  of  two,  three,  or  four  weeks  of  labor,  as  the  case  may  be, 
the  total  sum  for  the  entire  catch  is  paid  over  in  a  lump  to  the 
chiefs,  and  these  men  divide  it  among  the  laborers  according  to 
their  standing  as  workmen,  which  they  themselves  have  exhibited 
on  their  special  tally-sticks.  For  instance,  at  the  annual  divisions 
or  "  catch  "  settlement,  made  by  the  natives  on  St.  Paul  Island 
among  themselves,  in  1872,  when  I  was  present,  the  proceeds  of 
their  work  for  that  season  in  taking  and  skinning  seventy-five 
thousand  seals,  at  forty  cents  per  skin,  with  extra  work  connected 
with  it,  making  the  sum  of  $30,637.37,  was  divided  among  them  in 
this  way  :  There  were  seventy-four  shares  made  up,  representing 
seventy-four  men,  though  in  fact  only  fifty-six  men  worked,  but 
they  wished  to  give  a  certain  proportion  to  their  church,  a  certain 
proportion  to  their  priest,  and  a  certain  proportion  to  their  widows ; 
so  they  water  their  stock,  commercially  speaking.* 

It  will  be  remembered  that  at  the  time  the  question  of  leasing 
the  islands  was  before  Congress  much  opposition  to  the  proposal 


*37  first-class  shares,  at $451  22  each. 

23  second-class  shares,  at 406  08  each. 

4  third-class  shares,  at 360  97  each. 

10  fourth-class  shares,  at 315  85  each. 

These  shares  do  not  represent  more  than  fifty-six  able-bodied  men. 

In  August,  1873,  while  on  St.  George  Island,  I  was  present  at  a  similar 
division,  under  similar  circumstances,  which  caused  them  to  divide  among 
themselves  the  proceeds  of  their  work  in  taking  and  skinning  twenty -five 


250  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

was  made,  on  several  grounds,  by  two  classes,  one  of  which  argued 
against  a  "  monopoly,"  the  other  urging  that  the  Government  itself 
would  realize  more  by  taking  the  whole  management  of  the  busi- 
ness into  its  own  hands.  At  that  time  far  away  from  Washington, 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  I  do  not  know  what  arguments  were  used 
in  the  committee-rooms,  or  who  made  them  ;  but,  since  my  careful 
and  prolonged  study  of  the  subject  on  the  ground  itself,  and  of  the 
trade  and  its  conditions,  I  am  now  satisfied  that  the  act  of  June, 
1870,  directing  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  lease  the  seal- 
islands  of  Alaska  to  the  highest  bidder,  under  the  existing  condi- 
tions and  qualifications,  did  the  best  and  the  only  correct  and 
profitable  thing  that  could  have  been  done  in  the  matter,  both  with 
regard  to  the  preservation  of  the  seal-life  in  its  original  integrity, 
and  the  pecuniary  advantage  of  the  treasury  itself.  To  make  this 
statement  perfectly  clear,  the  following  facts,  by  way  of  illustration, 
should  be  presented  : 

First.  When  the  Government  took  possession  of  these  interests 
in  1868  and  1869,  the  gross  value  of  a  seal-skin  laid  down  in  the 
best  market,  at  London,  was  less  in  some  instances  and  in  others 
but  slightly  above  the  present  tax  and  royalty  paid  upon  it  by  the 
Alaska  Commercial  Company. 

Second.  Through  the  action  of  the  intelligent  business-men 
who  took  the  contract  from  the  Government  in  stimulating  and  en- 
couraging the  dressers  of  the  raw  material,  and  in  taking  sedulous 


thousand   seals,   at  forty  cents  a  skin,  $10,000.     They  made  the  following 

subdivision : 

Per  share. 

17  shares  each,  961  skins $384  40 

2  shares  each,  935  skins 374  00 

3  shares  each,  821  skins 328  40 

1  share   each,  820  skins 328  00 

3  shares  each,  770  skins 308  00 

3  shares  each,  400  skins 160  00 

These  twenty-nine  shares  referred  to,  as  stated  above,  represent  only  twenty- 
five  able-bodied  men  ;  two  of  them  were  women.  This  method  of  division  as 
above  given  is  the  result  of  their  own  choice.  It  is  an  impossible  thing  for  the 
company  to  decide  their  relative  merits  as  workmen  on  the  ground,  so  they 
have  wisely  turned  its  entire  discussion  over  to  them.  Whatever  they  do  they 
must  agree  to— whatever  the  company  might  do  they  possibly  and  probably 
would  never  clearly  understand,  and  hence  dissatisfaction  and  suspicion  would 
inevitably  arise.  As  it  is,  the  whole  subject  is  most  satisfactorily  settled. 


WONDERFUL   SEAL   ISLANDS.  251 

care  that  nothing  but  good  skins  should  leave  the  island,  and  in  com- 
bination with  leaders  of  fashion  abroad,  the  demand  for  the  fur,  by 
this  manipulation  and  management,  has  been  wonderfully  increased. 

Third.  As  matters  now  stand,  the  greatest  and  best  interests  of 
the  lessees  are  identical  with  those  of  the  Government ;  what  in- 
jures one  instantly  injures  the  other.  In  other  words,  both  strive 
to  guard  against  anything  that  shall  interfere  with  the  preservation 
of  the  seal-life  in  its  original  integrity,  and  both  having  it  to  their 
interest,  if  possible,  to  increase  that  life  ;  if  the  lessees  had  it  in 
their  power,  which  they  certainly  have  not,  to  ruin  these  interests 
by  a  few  seasons  of  rapacity,  they  are  so  bonded  and  so  environed 
that  prudence  prevents  it. 

Fourth.  The  frequent  changes  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  who  has  very  properly  the  absolute  control  of  the 
business  as  it  stands,  do  not  permit  upon  his  part  that  close, 
careful  scrutiny  which  is  exercised  by  the  lessees,  who,  unlike  him, 
have  but  their  one  purpose  to  carry  out.  The  character  of  the 
leading  men  among  them  is  enough  to  assure  the  public  that  the 
business  is  in  responsible  hands,  and  in  the  care  of  persons  who 
will  use  every  effort  for  its  preservation  and  its  perpetuation,  as  it 
is  so  plainly  their  best  end  to  serve.  Another  great  obstacle  to  the 
success  of  the  business,  if  controlled  entirely  by  the  Government, 
would  be  encountered  in  disposing  of  the  skins  after  they  had  been 
brought  down  from  the  islands.  It  would  not  do  to  sell  them  up 
there  to  the  highest  bidder,  since  that  would  license  the  sailing  of 
a  thousand  ships  to  be  present  at  the  sale.  The  rattling  of  their 
anchor-chains  and  the  scraping  of  their  keels  upon  the  beaches  of 
the  two  little  islands  would  alone  drive  every  seal  away  and  over  to 
the  Russian  grounds  in  a  remarkably  short  space  of  time.  The  Gov- 
ernment would  therefore  need  to  offer  them  at  public  auction  in 
this  country :  that  would  be  simple  history  repeating  itself — the 
Government  would  be  at  the  mercy  of  any  well-organized  combi- 
nation of  buyers.  Its  agents  conducting  the  sale  could  not  count- 
eract the  effect  of  such  a  combination  as  can  the  agents  of  a  private 
corporation,  who  may  look  after  their  interest  in  all  the  markets  of 
the  world  in  their  own  time  and  in  their  own  way,  according  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  season  and  the  demand,  and  who  are  supplied 
with  money  which  they  can  use,  without  public  scandal,  in  the 
manipulation  of  the  market.  On  this  ground  I  feel  confident  in 
stating  that  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  receives  more  money, 


252  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

net,  under  the  system  now  in  operation  than  it  would  by  taking  the 
exclusive  control  of  the  business.  Were  any  capable  government 
officer  supplied  with,  say,  $100,000,  to  expend  in  "  working  the 
market,"  and  intrusted  with  the  disposal  of  one  hundred  thousand 
seal-skins  wherever  he  could  do  so  to  the  best  advantage  of  the 
Government,  and  were  this  agent  a  man  of  first-class  ability  and 
energy,  I  think  it  quite  likely  that  the  same  success  might  attend 
his  labor  in  the  London  market  that  distinguishes  the  management 
of  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company.  But  imagine  the  cry  of  fraud 
and  embezzlement  that  would  be  raised  against  him,  however  hon- 
est he  might  be !  This  alone  would  bring  the-  whole  business  into 
positive  disrepute,  and  make  it  a  national  scandal.  As  matters  are 
now  conducted  there  is  no  room  for  scandal — not  one  single  trans- 
action on  the  islands  but  what  is  as  clear  to  investigation  and  ac- 
countability as  the  light  of  the  noon-day  sun  ;  what  is  done  is 
known  to  everybody,  and  the  tax  now  laid  by  the  Government  up- 
on, and  paid  into  the  treasury  every  year  by  the  Alaska  Commer- 
cial Company  yields  alone  a  handsome  rate  of  interest  on  the  en- 
tire purchase-money  expended  for  the  ownership  of  all  Alaska. 

It  is  frequently  urged  with  great  persistency,  by  misinformed 
and  malicious  authority,  that  the  lessees  can  and  do  take  thousands 
of  skins  in  excess  of  the  law,  and  this  catch  in  excess  is  shipped 
sub  rosa  to  Japan  from  the  Pribylov  Islands.  To  show  the  folly  of 
such  a  move  on  the  part  of  the  Company,  if  even  it  were  possible, 
I  will  briefly  recapitulate  the  conditions  under  which  the  skins  are 
taken.  The  natives  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  George  do  themselves,  in 
the  manner  I  have  indicated,  all  the  driving  and  skinning  of  the 
seals  for  the  company.  No  others  are  permitted  or  asked  to  land 
upon  the  islands  to  do  this  work,  so  long  as  the  inhabitants  of  the 
islands  are  equal  to  it.  They  have  been  equal  to  it  and  they  are 
more  than  equal  to  it.  Every  skin  taken  by  the  natives  is  counted 
by  themselves,  as  they  get  forty  cents  per  pelt  for  that  labor,  and, 
at  the  expiration  of  each  day's  work  in  the  field,  the  natives  know 
exactly  how  many  skins  have  been  taken  by  them,  how  many 
of  these  skins  have  been  rejected  by  the  company's  agent  be- 
cause they  were  carelessly  cut  and  damaged  in  skinning — usually 
about  three-fourths  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  whole  catch — and  they 
have  it  recorded  every  evening  by  those  among  them  who  are 
charged  with  the  duty.  Thus,  were  one  hundred  and  one  thousand 
skins  taken,  instead  of  one  hundred  thousand  allowed  by  law,  the 


WONDERFUL    SEAL   ISLANDS.  253 

natives  would  know  it  as  quickly  as  it  was  done,  and  they  would, 
on  the  strength  of  their  record  and  their  tally,  demand  the  full 
amount  of  their  compensation  for  the  extra  labor  ;  and  were  any 
ship  to  approach  the  islands,  at  any  hour,  these  people  would  know 
it  at  once,  and  would  be  aware  of  any  shipment  of  skins  that  might 
be  attempted.  It  would  then  be  the  common  talk  among  the  three 
hundred  and  ninety-eight  inhabitants  of  the  two  islands,  and  it 
would  be  a  matter  of  record,  open  to  any  person  who  might  come 
upon  the  ground  charged  with  investigation. 

Furthermore,  these  natives  are  constantly  going  to  and  from 
Oonalashka,  visiting  their  relations  in  the  Aleutian  settlements, 
hunting  for  wives,  etc.  On  the  mainland  they  have  intimate  inter- 
course with  bitter  enemies  of  the  company,  with  whom  they  would 
not  hesitate  to  talk  over  the  whole  state  of  affairs  on  the  islands,  as 
they  always  do  ;  for  they  know  nothing  else  and  think  of  nothing 
else  and  dream  of  nothing  else.  Therefore,  should  anything  be 
done  contrary  to  the  law,  the  act  could  and  would  be  reported  by 
these  people.  The  Government,  on  its  part,  through  its  four  agents 
stationed  on  these  islands,  counts  these  skins  into  the  ship,  and  one 
of  their  number  goes  down  to  San  Francisco  upon  her.  There  the 
collector  of  the  port  details  experts  of  his  own,  who  again  count 
them  all  out  of  the  hold,  and  upon  that  record  the  tax  is  paid  and 
the  certificate  signed  by  the  Government. 

It  will  therefore  at  once  be  seen,  by  examining  the  state  of  af- 
fairs on  the  islands,  and  the  conditions  upon  which  the  lease  is 
granted,  that  the  most  scrupulous  care  in  fulfilling  the  terms  of  the 
contract  is  compassed,  and  that  this  strict  fulfilment  is  the  most 
profitable  course  for  the  lessees  to  pursue  ;  and  that  it  would  be 
downright  folly  in  them  to  deviate  from  the  letter  of  the  law,  and  thus 
lay  themselves  open  at  any  day  to  discovery,  the  loss  of  their  con- 
tract, and  forfeiture  of  their  bonds.  Their  action  can  be  investigated 
at  any  time,  any  moment,  by  Congress ;  of  which  they  are  fully  aware. 
They  cannot  bribe  these  three  hundred  and  ninety-eight  people  on 
the  islands  to  secrecy,  any  more  successfully  than  they  could  conceal 
their  action  from  them  on  the  sealing  fields ;  and  any  man  of  average 
ability  could  go,  and  can  go,  among  these  natives  and  inform  him- 
self as  to  the  most  minute  details  of  the  catch,  from  the  time  the 
lease  was  granted  up  to  the  present  hour,  should  he  have  reason  to 
suspect  the  honesty  of  the  Treasury  agents.  The  road  to  and  from  the 
islands  is  not  a  difficult  one,  though  it  is  travelled  only  once  a  year. 


CHAPTEE  X. 

AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS. 

Difference  between  a  Hair-seal  and  a  Fur-seal. — The  Fur-seal  the  most  Intelli- 
gent of  all  Amphibians. — Its  singularly  Free  Progression  on  Land. — Its 
Power  in  the  Water.— The  Old  Males  the  First  Arrivals  in  the  Spring.— 
Their  Desperate  Battles  one  with  Another  for  Position  on  the  Breeding 
Grounds. — Subsequent  Arrival  of  the  Females. — Followed  by  the  "  Bach- 
elors."— Wonderful  Strength  and  Desperate  Courage  of  the  Old  Males. — 
Indifference  of  the  Females.— Noise  of  the  Rookeries  Sounds  like  the  Roar 
of  Niagara. — Old  Males  fast  from  May  to  August,  inclusive  ;  neither  Eat 
nor  Drink,  nor  Leave  their  Stations  in  all  that  Time. — Graceful  Females. — 
Frolicsome  "Pups." — They  have  to  Learn  to  Swim  ! — How  they  Learn. — 
Astonishing  Vitality  of  the  Fur-seal.  — "Podding"  of  the  Pups.— Beauti- 
ful Eyes  of  the  Fur-seal. — How  the  "  Holluschickie,"  or  Bachelor  Seals, 
Pass  the  Time. — They  are  the  only  ones  Killed  for  Fur. — They  Herd  alone 
by  Themselves  in  spite  of  their  Inclination;  Obliged  to. — They  are  the 
Champion  Swimmers  of  the  Sea. — A  Review  of  the  Vast  Breeding  Rook- 
eries.— Natives  Gathering  a  Drove.— Driving  the  Seals  to  the  Slaughtering 
Fields.— No  Chasing— no  Hunting  of  Seals.— The  Killing  Gang  at  Work: 
Skinning,  Salting,  and  Shipping  the  Pelts. — All  Sent  Direct  to  London. — 
Reasons  Why. — How  the  Skins  are  Prepared  for  Sacks,  Muffs,  etc. 

"  The  web-footed  seals  forsake  the  stormy  swell, 
And,  sleeping  in  herds,  exhale  nauseous  smell. " — HOMER. 

A  VIVID  realism  of  the  fact  that  often  truth  is  far  stranger  than  fic- 
tion is  strikingly  illustrated  in  the  life-history  of  the  fur-seal :  as  it  is 
the  one  overshadowing  and  superlatively  interesting  subject  of  this 
discussion,  I  shall  present  all  its  multitudinous  details,  even  at  the 
risk  of  being  thought  tedious.  That  aggregate  of  animal  life 
shadowed  every  summer  out  upon  the  breeding  grounds  of  the 
Seal  Islands  is  so  vast,  so  anomalous,  so  interesting,  and  so  valu- 
able, that  it  deserves  the  fullest  mention  ;  and  even  when  I  shall 
have  done,  it  will  be  but  feebly  expressed. 


II 


UJ  13 

*  | 

5       «3 


*       I 

V 

3 

ju    (4 

II 

11 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  255 

Great  as  it  is,  yet  a  short  schedule  *  embraces  the  titles  of  all 
the  pinnipeds  found  in,  on,  and  around  the  island-group.  Of  this 
list  the  hair-seal  f  is  the  animal  which  has  done  so  much  to  found 
that  erroneous  popular  and  scientific  opinion  as  to  what  a  fur-seal 
appears  like.  Phoca  vitulina  has,  in  this  manner,  given  to  the  peo- 
ple of  the  world  a  false  idea  of  its  relatives.  It  is  so  commonly  di^ 
tributed  all  over  the  littoral  salt  waters  of  the  earth,  seen  in  the 
harbors  of  nearly  every  marine  port,  or  basking  along  the  loneliest 
and  least  inhabited  of  desolate  coasts  far  to  the  north,  that  every- 
body has  noticed  it,  if  not  in  life,  then  in  its  stuffed  skins  at  the 
museums,  sometimes  very  grotesquely  mounted.  This  copy,  set 
everywhere  before  the  eye  of  the  naturalist,  has  rendered  it  so  diffi- 
cult for  him  to  correctly  discriminate  between  the  Phocidae  and  the 
Otariidce,  that  the  synonymy  of  the  Pinnipedia  has  been  expanded 
until  it  is  replete  with  meaningless  description  and  surmise. 

Although  the  hair-seal  belongs  to  the  great  group  of  pinnipeds, 
yet  it  does  not  have  even  a  generic  affinity  with  those  seals  with 
which  it  has  been  so  persistently  grouped,  namely,  the  fur-seal  and 
the  sea-lion.  It  no  more  resembles  them,  than  does  the  raccoon 
a  black  or  grizzly  bear. 

I  shall  not  enter  into  a  detailed  description  of  this  seal  ;  it  is 
wholly  superfluous,  for  excellent,  and,  I  believe,  trustworthy  ac- 
counts have  been  repeatedly  published  by  writers  who  have  treated 
of  the  subject  as  it  was  spread  before  their  eyes  on  the  coasts  of 


*  The  seal-life  on  the  Pribylov  Islands  may  be  classified  under  the  follow- 
ing heads,  namely:  (1)  The  fur-seal,  Cattorhinus  ursinus,  the  "  kautickie"  of 
the  Russians  ;  (2)  the  sea-lion,  Eumetopias  stetteri,  the  "seevitchie  "  of  the  Rus- 
sians; (3)  the  hair-seal,  Phoca  vitulina ,  the  "  nearhpahsky  "  of  the  Russians  ; 
(4)  the  walrus,  Odob&nus  obems,  the  "  morsjee  "  of  the  Russians. 

\  The  inconsequential  numbers  of  the  hair-seal  around  and  on  the  Pribylov 
Islands  seem  to  be  characteristic  of  all  Alaskan  waters  and  the  northwest 
coast;  also,  the  phocidae  are  equally  scant  on  the  Asiatic  littoral  margins. 
Only  the  following  four  species  are  known  to  exist  throughout  the  entire  ex- 
tent of  that  vast  marine  area,  viz.  : 

Phoca  ritulina — Everywhere  between  Bering  Straits  and  California. 

Phoca  fwtidti — Plover  Bay,  Norton's  Sound,  Kuskokvim  mouth,  and  Bris- 
tol Bay,  of  Bering  Sea  ;  Cape  Seartze  Kammin,  Arctic  Ocean,  to  Point  Barrow. 

Erignathus  barbatus — Kamchatkan  coast,  Norton's  Sound,  Kuskokvim 
mouth  and  Bristol  Bay,  of  Bering  Sea. 

Ilistriophoca  equestns — Yukon  mouth  and  coast  south  to  Bristol  Bay,  of 
Bering  Sea. 


256  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

Labrador,  Newfoundland,  and  Greenland ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  re- 
searches and  notes  made  by  European  scientists.  It  differs  com- 
pletely in  shape  and  habit  from  its  congeners  on  these  islands. 
Here,  where  I  have  studied  its  biology,  it  seldom  comes  up  from 
the  water  more  than  a  few  rods  at  the  farthest ;  generally  hauling 
and  resting  at  the  margin  of  the  surf- wash.  It  takes  up  no  position 
on  land  to  hold  and  protect  a  family  or  harem,  preferring  the  de- 
tached water-worn  rocks,  especially  those  on  the  lonely  north  shore 
of  St.  Paul,  although  I  have  seen  it  resting  at  "Gorbatch,"  near  the 
sea-margin  of  the  great  seal-rookery  of  that  name,  on  the  Reef 
Point  of  St.  Paul ;  its  cylindrical,  supine,  gray  and  white  body 
marked  in  strong  contrast  with  the  erect,  black,  and  ochre-colored 
forms  of  the  Callorhinus,  which  swarmed  round  about  it.  On  such 
small  spots  of  rock,  wet  and  isolated  from  the  mainland,  and  in  se- 
cluded places  of  the  north  shore,  the  "  nearhpah  "  brings  forth  its 
young,  a  single  pup,  perfectly  white,  covered  with  long  woolly  hair, 
and  weighing  from  three  to  seven  pounds.  This  pup  grows  rap- 
idly, and  after  the  lapse  of  four  or  five  months  it  tips  the  scales  at 
fifty  pounds  ;  by  that  time  it  has  shed  its  infant  coat  and  donned 
the  adult  soft  steel-gray  hair  over  the  head,  limbs,  and  abdomen, 
with  its  back  most  richly  mottled  and  barred  lengthwise,  by  dark 
brown  and  brown-black  streaks  and  blotches,  suffused  at  their  edges 
into  the  light  steel-gray  ground  of  the  body.  When  they  appear  in 
the  spring  following,  this  bright  gray  tone  to  their  color  has  ri- 
pened into  a  dingy  ochre,  and  the  mottling  spread  well  over  the  head 
and  down  on  the  upper  side  or  back  of  the  flippers,  but  fades  out 
as  it  progresses.  It  has  no  appreciable  fur  or  under-wool.  There 
is  no  noteworthy  difference  as  to  color  or  size  between  the  sexes. 
So  far  as  I  have  observed,  they  are  not  polygamous.  They  are  ex- 
ceedingly timid  and  wary  at  all  times,  and  in  this  manner  and 
method  they  are  diametrically  opposed,  not  by  shape  alone,  but 
by  habit  and  disposition,  to  the  fashion  of  the  fur-seal  in  especial, 
and  the  sea-lion.  Their  skin  is  of  little  value,  comparatively,  but 
their  chief  merit,  according  to  the  natives,  is  the  relative  greater 
juiciness  and  sweetness  of  their  flesh,  over  even  the  best  steaks  of 
sea-lion  or  fur-seal  pup  meat. 

One  common  point  of  agreement  among  all  authors  was,  by  my 
observations  of  fact,  so  strikingly  refuted,  that  I  will  here  correct  a 
prevalent  error  made  by  naturalists  who,  comparing  the  hair-seal 
with  the  fur-seal,  state  that  in  consequence  of  the  peculiar  struct- 


AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS.  257 

ure  of  their  limbs,  their  progression  on  land  is  "mainly  accom- 
plished by  a  wriggling,  serpentine  motion  of  the  body,  slightly  as- 
sisted by  the  extremities."  This  is  not  so  in  any  respect ;  for, 
whenever  I  have  purposely  surprised  these  animals,  a  few  rods  from 
the  beach-margin,  they  would  awake  and  excitedly  scramble,  or 
rather  spasmodically  exert  themselves,  to  reach  the  water  instantly, 
riking  out  quickly  with  both  fore-feet  simultaneously,  lifting 
in  this  way  alone,  and  dragging  the  whole  body  forward,  without 
any  "  wriggling  motion  "  whatever  to  their  back  or  posterior  parts, 
moving  from  six  inches  to  a  foot  in  advance  every  time  their  fore- 
feet were  projected  forward,  and  the  body  drawn  along  according 
to  the  violence  of  the  effort  and  the  character  of  the  ground  ;  the 
body  of  the  seal  then  falls  flat  upon  its  stomach,  and  the  fore-feet 
or  flippers  are  free  again  for  another  similar  motion.  This  action  of 
Phoca  is  effected  so  continuously  and  so  rapidly,  that  in  attempting 
to  head  off  a  young  "nearhpah"  from  the  water,  at  English  Bay,  I 
was  obliged  to  leave  a  brisk  walk  and  take  to  a  dog  trot  to  do  it. 
The  hind-feet  are  not  used  when  exerted  in  this  rapid  movement  at 
all  ;  they  are  dragged  along  in  the  wake  of  the  body,  perfectly  limp 
and  motionless.  But  they  do  use  those  posterior  parts,  however, 
when  leisurely  climbing  up  and  over  rocks  undisturbed,  or  playing 
one  with  another  ;  still  it  is  always  a  weak,  trembling  terrestrial  ef- 
fort, and  particularly  impotent  and  clumsy.  In  their  swift  swim- 
ming the  hind-feet  of  Phocidce  evidently  do  all  the  work  ;  the  re- 
verse is  a  remarkable  characteristic  of  the  OtariidcK. 

These  remarks  of  mine,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  apply  di- 
rectly to  the  Phoca  vitulina,  and  I  presume  indirectly  with  equal 
force  to  all  the  rest  of  its  more  important  generic  kindred,  be  they 
as  large  as  the  big  inaklok,  Erignathus  barbata,  or  less. 

This  hair-seal  is  found  around  these  islands  at  all  seasons  of  the 
year,  but  in  very  small  numbers.  I  have  never  seen  more  than 
twenty-five  or  thirty  at  any  one  time,  and  I  am  told  that  its  occi- 
dental distribution,  although  everywhere  found,  above  and  below, 
from  the  arctic  to  the  tropics,  and  especially  general  over  the 
North  Pacific  coast,  nowhere  exhibits  any  great  number  at  any  one 
place  ;  but  we  know  that  it  and  its  immediate  kindred  form  a  vast 
majority  of  the  multitudinous  seal-life  peculiar  to  our  North  At- 
lantic shores,  ice-floes,  and  contiguous  waters.  The  scarcity  of 
this  species,  and  of  all  its  generic  allies,  in  the  waters  of  the  Pacific, 
is  notable  as  compared  with  those  of  the  circumpolar  Atlantic, 


258  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

where  these  hair-seals  are  the  seals  of  commerce  :  they  are  found  in 
such  immense  numbers  between  Greenland  and  Labrador,  and 
thence  to  the  eastward  at  certain  seasons  of  every  year,  that  em- 
ployment is  given  to  a  fleet  of  about  sixty  sailing  and  steam  ves- 
sels, which  annually  goes  forth  from  St.  John,  Newfoundland,  and 
elsewhere,  fitted  for  seal-fishing :  taking  in  all  this  cruising  over 
three  hundred  thousand  of  these  animals  each  season.  The  princi- 
pal object  of  value,  however,  is  the  oil  rendered  from  them :  the 
skins  have  a  very  small  commercial  importance. 

The  fur-seal,  Callorhinus  ursinus,  which  repairs  to  these  islands 
to  breed  and  to  shed  its  hair  and  fur,  in  numbers  that  seem  almost 
fabulous,  is  the  highest  organized  of  all  the  Pinnipedia,  and,  indeed, 
for  that  matter,  when  land  and  water  are  weighed  in  the  account 
together,  there  is  no  other  animal  known  to  man  which  may  be  truly 
classed  as  its  superior,  from  a  purely  physical  point  of  view. 
Certainly  there  are  few,  if  any,  creatures  in  the  animal  kingdom 
that  can  be  said  to  exhibit  a  higher  order  of  instinct,  approaching 
even  our  intelligence. 

I  wish  to  draw  attention  to  a  specimen  of  the  finest  of  this  race 
— a  male  in  the  flush  and  prime  of  his  first  maturity,  six  or  seven 
years  old,  and  full  grown.  When  it  comes  up  from  the  sea  early 
in  the  spring,  out  to  its  station  for  the  breeding  season,  we  have  an 
animal  before  us  that  will  measure  six  and  a  half  to  seven  and  a 
quarter  feet  in  length  from  tip  of  nose  to  the  end  of  its  abbreviated 
abortive  tail.  It  will  weigh  at  least  four  hundred  pounds,  and  I 
have  seen  older  specimens  much  more  corpulent,  which,  in  my  best 
judgment,  could  not  be  less  than  six  hundred  pounds  in  weight.* 

*  Those  extremely  heavy  adult  males  which  arrive  first  in  the  season  and 
take  their  stations  on  the  rookeries,  are  so  fat  that  they  do  not  exhibit  a 
wrinkle  or  a  fold  of  the  skins  enveloping  their  blubber-lined  bodies.  Most  of 
this  fatty  deposit  is  found  around  the  shoulders  and  the  neck,  though  a  warm 
coat  of  blubber  covers  all  the  other  portions  of  the  body  save  the  flippers.  This 
blubber-thickening  of  the  neck  and  chest  is  characteristic  of  the  adult  males 
only,  which  are,  by  its  provisions,  enabled  to  sustain  the  extraordinary  pro- 
tracted fasting  periods  incident  to  their  habit  of  life  and  reproduction. 

When  those  superlatively  fleshy  bulls  first  arrive,  a  curious  body-tremor 
seems  to  attend  every  movement  which  the  animals  make  on  land  ;  their  fat 
appears  to  ripple  backward  and  forward  under  their  hides,  like  waves.  As 
they  alternate  with  their  flippers  in  walking,  the  whole  form  of  the  "  see- 
catchie  "  fairly  shakes  as  a  bowl  full  of  jelly  does  when  agitated  on  the  table 
before  us. 


a   -  L 

Iff 

i-r 

•o 
O 


n 

o  * 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  259 

The  head  of  this  animal  now  before  us  appears  to  be  disproportion- 
ately small  in  comparison  with  an  immensely  thick  neck  and  shoul- 
ders ;  but,  as  we  come  to  examine  it,  we  will  find  it  is  mostly  all 
occupied  by  the  brain.  The  light  frame- work  of  its  skull  supports 
an  expressive  pair  of  large  bluish-hazel  eyes,  alternately  burning 
with  revengeful,  passionate  light,  then  suddenly  changing  to  the 
tones  of  tenderness  and  good-nature.  It  has  a  muzzle  and  jaws  of 
about  the  same  size  and  form  observed  in  any  full-blooded  New- 
foundland dog,  with  this  difference,  that  the  lips  are  not  flabby  and 
overhanging  ;  they  are  as  firmly  lined  and  pressed  against  one  an- 
other as  our  own.  The  upper  lips  support  a  yellowish-white  and 
gray  mustache,  composed  of  long,  stiff  bristles,  which,  when  not 
torn  out  and  broken  off  in  combat,  sweeps  down  and  over  the 
shoulders  as  a  luxuriant  plume.  Look  at  it  as  it  comes  leisurely 
swimming  on  toward  the  land  ;  see  how  high  above  the  water  it 
carries  its  head,  and  how  deliberately  it  surveys  the  beach,  after 
having  stepped  upon  it  (for  it  may  be  truly  said  to  step  with  its 
fore-flippers,  as  they  regularly  alternate  when  it  moves  up),  carry- 
ing the  head  well  above  them,  erect  and  graceful,  at  least  three  feet 
from  the  ground.  The  fore-feet,  or  flippers,  are  a  pair  of  dark 
bluish-black  hands,  about  eight  or  ten  inches  broad  at  their  junc- 
tion with  the  body,  and  the  metacarpal  joint,  running  out  to 
an  ovate  point  at  their  extremity,  some  fifteen  to  eighteen  inches 
from  this  union — all  the  rest  of  the  forearm,  the  ulna,  radius,  and 
humerus  being  concealed  under  the  skin  and  thick  blubber-folds  of 
the  main  body  and  neck,  hidden  entirely  at  this  season,  when  it  is 
so  fat.  But  six  weeks  to  three  months  after  this  time  of  landing, 
when  that  superfluous  fat  and  flesh  is  consumed  by  self-absorption, 
then  those  bones  will  show  plainly  under  its  shrunken  skin.  On 
the  upper  side  of  these  flippers  the  hair  of  the  body  straggles  down 
finer  and  fainter  as  it  comes  below  to  a  point  close  by,  and  slightly 
beyond  that  spot  of  junction  where  the  phalanges  and  the  meta- 
carpal bones  unite,  similar  to  that  point  on  our  own  hand  where 
our  knuckles  are  placed  ;  and  here  the  hair  ends,  leaving  the  rest 
of  the  skin  to  the  end  of  the  flipper  bare  and  wrinkled  in  places  at 
the  margin  of  the  inner  side  ;  showing,  also,  five  small  pits,  con- 
taining abortive  nails,  which  are  situated  immediately  over  the 
union  of  the  phalanges  with  their  cartilaginous  continuations  to  the 
end  of  the  flipper. 

On  the  under  side  of  the  flipper  the  skin  is  entirely  bare  from 


260  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

its  outer  extremity  up  to  the  body-connection.  It  is  sensibly 
tougher  and  thicker  than  elsewhere  on  the  body  ;  it  is  deeply  and 
regularly  wrinkled  with  seains  and  furrows,  which  cross  one  an- 
other so  as  to  leave  a  kind  of  sharp  diamond-cut  pattern.  When 
they  are  placed  by  the  animal  upon  the  smoothest  rocks,  shining 
and  slippery  from  algoid  growths  and  the  sea-polish  of  restless 
waters,  they  seldom  fail  to  adhere. 

When  we  observe  this  seal  moving  out  on  the  land,  we  notice 
that,  though  it  handles  its  fore-feet  in  a  most  creditable  manner,  it 
brings  up  its  rear  in  quite  a  different  style  :  for,  after  every  second 
step  ahead  with  the  anterior  limbs  it  will  arch  its  spine,  and  in  arch- 
ing, it  drags  and  lifts  up,  and  together  forward,  the  hind-feet,  to  a 
fit  position  under  its  body,  giving  it  in  this  manner  fresh  leverage 
for  another  movement  forward  by  the  fore-feet,  in  which  the  spine 
is  again  straightened  out,  and  then  a  fresh  hitch  is  taken  up  on 
the  posteriors  once  more,  and  so  on  as  the  seal  progresses.  This  is 
the  leisurely  and  natural  movement  on  land,  when  not  disturbed,  the 
body  all  the  time  being  carried  clear  of  and  never  touching  the 
ground  ;  but  if  the  creature  is  frightened,  this  method  of  progres- 
sion is  radically  changed.  It  launches  into  a  lope  and  actually  gal- 
lops so  fast  that  the  best  powers  of  a  man  in  running  are  taxed  to 
head  it  off.  Still,  it  must  be  remembered  that  it  cannot  run  far  be- 
fore it  sinks,  trembling,  gasping,  breathless,  to  the  earth.  Thirty  or 
forty  yards  of  such  speed  marks  the  utmost  limit  of  its  endurance. 

The  radical  difference  in  the  form  and  action  of  the  hind-feet 
cannot  fail  to  strike  the  eye  at  once.  They  are  one-seventh  longer 
than  the  fore-hands  and  very  much  lighter  and  more  slender  ;  they 
resemble,  in  broad  terms,  a  pair  of  black-kid  gloves,  flattened  out 
and  shrivelled,  as  they  lie  in  their  box. 

There  is  no  suggestion  of  fingers  on  the  fore-hands  ;  but  the 
hind-feet  seem  to  be  toes  run  into  ribbons,  for  they  literally  flap 
about  involuntarily  from  that  point  where  the  cartilaginous  pro- 
cesses unite  with  the  phalangeal  bones.  The  hind-feet  are  also 
merged  in  the  body  at  their  junction  with  it,  like  those  anterior. 
Nothing  can  be  seen  of  the  leg  above  the  tarsal  joint. 

The  shape  of  the  hind  flipper  is  strikingly  like  that  of  a  human 
foot,  provided  the  latter  were  drawn  out  to  a  length  of  twenty  or 
twenty-two  inches,  the  instep  flattened  down  and  the  toes  run  out 
into  thin,  membranous,  oval-tipped  points,  only  skin-thick,  leaving 
three  strong  cylindrical,  grayish,  horn-colored  nails,  half  an  inch 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  261 

long  each,  back  six  inches  from  these  skinny  toe-ends,  without  any 
sign  of  nails  to  mention  on  the  outer  big  and  little  toes. 

On  the  upper  side  of  this  hind-foot  the  body-hair  comes  down 
to  that  point  where  the  metatarsus  and  phalangeal  bones  join  and 
fade  out.  From  that  junction  the  phalanges,  about  six  inches  down 
to  the  nails  above  mentioned,  are  entirely  bare  and  stand  ribbed  up 
in  bold  relief  on  the  membrane  which  unites  them,  as  the  web  to  a 
duck's  foot.  The  nails  just  referred  to  mark  the  ends  of  the  pha- 
langeal bones  and  their  union  in  turn  with  the  cartilaginous  pro- 
cesses, which  run  rapidly  tapering  and  flattening  out  to  the  ends  of 
the  thin  toe-points.  Now,  as  we  are  looking  at  this  fur-seal's  mo- 
tion and  progression,  that  which  seems  most  odd  is  the  gingerly 
manner  (if  I  may  be  allowed  to  use  the  expression)  in  which  it  car- 
ries these  hind  nippers.  They  are  held  out  at  right  angles  from 
the  body  directly  opposite  the  pelvis,  the  toe-ends  or  flaps  slightly 
waving,  curled,  and  drooping  over,  supported  daintily,  as  it  were, 
above  the  earth,  the  animal  only  suffering  its  weight  behind  to  fall 
upon  its  heels,  which  are  themselves  opposed  to  each  other,  scarcely 
five  inches  apart. 

We  shall,  as  we  see  this  seal  again  later  in  the  season,  have  to 
notice  a  different  mode  of  progression  and  bearing,  both  when  it  is 
lording  over  its  harem  or  when  it  grows  shy  and  restless  at  the  end 
of  the  breeding  season,  then  faint,  emaciated,  and  dejected.  But 
we  will  now  proceed  to  observe  him  in  the  order  of  his  arrival  and 
that  of  his  family.  His  behavior  during  the  long  period  of  fasting 
and  unceasing  activity  and  vigilance,  and  other  cares  which  devolve 
upon  him  as  the  most  eminent  of  all  polygamists  in  the  brute  world, 
I  shall  carefully  relate,  and  to  fully  comprehend  the  method  of  this 
exceedingly  interesting  animal  it  will  be  frequently  necessary  for 
the  reader  to  refer  to  my  sketch-maps  of  its  breeding  grounds  or 
rookeries,  and  the  islands. 

The  adult  males  are  the  first  examples  of  the  Callorhinus  to  ar- 
rive in  the  spring  on  the  seal-ground,  which  has  been  deserted  by 
all  of  them  since  the  close  of  the  preceding  year.  * 

*  The  distances  at  sea,  away  from  the  Pribylov  Islands,  in  which  fur-seals 
are  found  during  the  breeding  season,  are  very  considerable.  Scattered  rec- 
ords have  been  made  of  seeing  large  bands  of  them  during  August  as  far  down 
the  northwest  coast  as  they  probably  range  at  any  season  of  the  year,  viz. ,  well 
out  at  sea  in  the  latitude  of  Cape  Flattery,  47°  to  49 ;  south  latitude.  In  the 
winter  and  spring,  up  to  middle  of  June,  all  classes  are  found  here  spread  out 


262  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

Between  May  1st  and  5th,  usually,  a  few  males  will  be  found 
scattered  over  the  rookeries  pretty  close  to  the  water.  They  are  at 
this  time  quite  shy  and  sensitive,  seeming  not  yet  satisfied  with  the 
land,  and  a  great  many  spend  day  after  day  idly  swimming  out 
among  the  breakers  a  little  distance  from  the  shore  before  they 
come  to  it,  perhaps  somewhat  reluctant  at  first  to  enter  upon  the 
assiduous  duties  and  the  grave  responsibilities  before  them  of  fight- 
ing for  and  maintaining  their  positions  in  the  rookeries. 

The  first  arrivals  are  not  always  the  oldest  bulls,  but  may  be  said 
to  be  the  finest  and  most  ambitious  of  their  class.  They  are  full 
grown  and  able  to  hold  their  places  on  the  rookeries  or  the  breed- 
ing flats,  which  they  immediately  take  up  after  corning  ashore. 
Their  method  of  landing  is  to  come  collectively  to  those  breeding 
grounds  where  they  passed  the  prior  season  ;  but  I  am  not  able  to 
say  authoritatively,  nor  do  I  believe  it,  strongly  as  it  has  been  urged 
by  many  careful  men  who  were  with  me  on  the  islands,  that  these 
animals  come  back  to  and  take  up  the  same  position  on  their  breed- 
ing grounds  that  they  individually  occupied  when  there  last  year. 
I^rom  my  knowledge  of  their  action  and  habit,  and  from  what  I 
have  learned  of  the  natives,  I  should  say  that  very  few,  if  any,  of 
them  make  such  a  selection  and  keep  these  places  year  after  year. 
Even  did  the  seal  itself  intend  to  come  directly  from  the  sea  to  that 
spot  on  the  rookery  which  it  left  last  summer,  what  could  it  do  if 
it  came  to  that  rookery  margin  a  little  later  and  found  that  another 
"  see-catch  "  had  occupied  its  ground  ?  The  bull  could  do  nothing. 
It  would  either  have  to  die  in  its  tracks,  if  it  persisted  in  attaining 
this  supposed  objective  point,  or  do  what  undoubtedly  it  does  do — 
seek  the  next  best  locality  which  it  can  secure  adjacent. 

One  aged  "  see-catch  "  was  pointed  out  to  me  at  the  "  Gor- 
batch  "  section  of  the  Reef  rookery,  as  an  animal  that  was  long 
known  to  the  natives  as  a  regular  visitor,  close  by  or  on  the  same 
rock,  every  season  during  the  past  three  years.  They  called  him 
"  Old  John,"  and  they  said  they  knew  him  because  he  had  one  of 
his  posterior  digits  missing,  bitten  off,  perhaps,  in  a  combat.  I 

over  wide  areas  of  ocean.  Then  by  June  15th  they  will  have  all  departed,  the 
first  and  the  latest,  en  route  for  the  Pribylov  Islands.  Then,  when  seen  again 
in  this  extreme  southern  range,  I  presume  the  unusually  early  examples  of 
return  toward  the  end  of  August  are  squads  of  the  yearlings  of  both  sexes,  for 
this  division  is  always  the  last  to  land  on  and  the  first  to  leave  the  Seal  Islands 
annually. 


"OLD   JOHN" 
A  Life  Study  of  an  aged  Fur  Seal-Bull  or  "  Seecatch."— Gorbotch  Rookery,  July  2,  1872 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  263 

saw  him  in  1872,  and  made  careful  drawings  of  him  in  order  that 
I  might  recognize  his  individuality,  should  he  appear  again  in  the 
following  year,  and  when  that  time  rolled  by,  I  found  him  not ;  he 
failed  to  reappear,  and  the  natives  acquiesced  in  his  absence.  Of 
course  it  was  impossible  to  say  that  he  was  dead  when  there  were 
ten  thousand  rousing,  fighting  bulls  to  the  right,  left,  and  below 
us,  under  our  eyes,  for  we  could  not  approach  for  inspection.  Still, 
if  these  animals  came  each  to  a  certain  place  in  any  general  fash- 
ion, or  as  a  rule,  I  think  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  recognizing 
the  fact ;  the  natives  certainly  would  do  so  ;  as  it  is,  they  do  not. 
I  think  it  very  likely,  however,  that  the  older  bulls  come  back  to 
the  same  common  rookery  ground  where  they  spent  the  previous 
season  ;  but  they  are  obliged  to  take  up  their  position  on  it  just  as 
the  circumstances  attending  their  arrival  will  permit,  such  as  find- 
ing other  seals  which  have  arrived  before  them,  or  of  being  whipped 
out  by  stronger  rivals  from  their  old  stands. 

It  is  entertaining  to  note,  in  this  connection,  that  the  Kussians 
themselves,  with  the  object  of  testing  that  mooted  query,  during 
the  later  years  of  their  possession  of  the  islands,  drove  up  a  num- 
ber of  young  males  from  Lukannon,  cut  off  their  ears,  and  turned 
them  out  to  sea  again.  The  following  season,  when  the  droves 
came  in  from  the  "  hauling-grounds "  to  the  slaughtering-fields, 
quite  a  number  of  those  cropped  seals  were  in  the  drives,  but  in- 
stead of  being  found  all  at  one  place — the  place  from  whence  they 
were  driven  the  year  before — they  were  scattered  examples  of  crop- 
pies from  every  point  on  the  island.  The  same  experiment  was 
again  made  by  our  people  in  1870  (the  natives  having  told  them  of 
such  prior  undertaking),  and  they  went  also  to  Lukannon,  drove  up 
one  hundred  young  males,  cut  off  their  left  ears,  and  set  them  free 
in  turn.  Of  this  number,  during  the  summer  of  1872,  when  I  was 
there,  the  natives  found  in.  their  driving  of  seventy-five  thousand 
seals  from  the  different  hauling-grounds  of  St.  Paul  up  to  the  vil- 
lage killing-grounds,  two  on  Novastoshnah  rookery,  ten  miles  north 
of  Lukannon,  and  two  or  three  from  English  Bay  and  Tolstoi  rook- 
eries, six  miles  west  by  water  ;  one  or  two  were  taken  on  St.  George 
Island,  thirty-six  miles  to  the  southeast,  and  not  one  from  Lukan- 
non was  found  among  those  that  were  driven  from  there  ;  probably, 
had  all  the  young  males  on  the  two  islands  this  season  been  exam- 
ined, the  rest  of  the  croppies  that  had  returned  from  the  perils  of 
the  deep,  whence  they  sojourned  during  the  winter,  would  have 


264  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

been  distributed  quite  equally  about  the  Pribylov  hauling-grounds. 
Although  the  natives  say  that  they  think  the  cutting  off  of  the  ani- 
mal's ear  gives  the  water  such  access  to  its  head  as  to  cause  its 
death,  yet  I  noticed  that  those  examples  which  we  had  recognized 
by  this  auricular  mutilation,  were  normally  fat  and  well  developed. 
Their  theory  does  not  appeal  to  my  belief,  and  it  certainly  requires 
confirmation. 

These  experiments  would  tend  to  prove  very  cogently  and  con- 
clusively that  when  the  seals  approach  the  islands  in  the  spring 
they  have  nothing  in  their  minds  but  a  general  instinctive  apprecia- 
tion of  the  fitness  of  the  land  as  a  whole,  and  no  special  fondness 
or  determination  to  select  any  one  particular  spot,  not  even  the 
place  of  their  birth.  A  study  of  my  map  of  the  distribution  of 
the  seal-life  on  St.  Paul,  clearly  indicates  that  the  landing  of  the 
seals  on  the  respective  rookeries  is  influenced  greatly  by  the  direc- 
tion of  the  wind  at  the  time  of  their  approach  to  the  islands  in  the 
spring  and  early  summer.  The  prevailing  airs,  blowing,  as  they  do 
at  that  season,  from  the  north  and  northwest,  carry  far  out  to  sea 
the  odor  of  the  old  rookery  flats,  together  with  a  fresh  scent  of 
the  pioneer  bulls  which  have  located  themselves  on  these  breeding 
grounds  three  or  four  weeks  in  advance  of  their  kind.  The  seals 
come  up  from  the  great  North  Pacific,  and  hence  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  rookeries  of  the  south  and  southeastern  shores  of  St.  Paul 
Island  receive  nearly  all  the  seal-life,  although  there  are  miles  of 
perfectly  eligible  ground  at  Nahsayvernia  or  north  shore.  To  settle 
this  matter  beyond  all  argument,  however,  I  know  is  an  exceedingly 
difficult  task,  since  the  identification  of  individuals,  from  one  season 
to  another,  among  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  and  even  millions, 
that  come  under  your  eye  on  one  of  these  great  rookeries,  is  well- 
nigh  impossible.  From  the  time  of  the  first  arrival  in  May  up  to  the 
beginning  of  June,  or  as  late  as  the  middle  of  that  month,  if  the 
weather  be  clear,  is  an  interval  in  which  everything  seems  quiet. 
Very  few  seals  are  added  to  the  pioneers  that  have  landed,  as  we 
have  described.  About  June  1st,  however,  sometimes  a  little  be- 
fore, and  never  much  later,  the  seal-weather — the  foggy,  humid,  oozy 
damp  of  summer — sets  in  ;  and  with  it,  as  the  gray  banks  roll  up 
and  shroud  the  islands,  old  bull-seals  swarm  from  the  depths  by 
hundreds  and  thousands,  and  locate  themselves  in  advantageous 
positions  for  the  reception  of  the  females,  which  are  generally  three 
weeks  or  a  month  later  than  this  date  in  arrival 


AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS.  265 

It  appears  from  my  survey  of  these  breeding  grounds  that  a 
well-understood  principle  exists  among  the  able-bodied  males,  to- 
wit  :  that  each  one  shall  remain  undisturbed  on  his  own  ground, 
which  is  usually  about  six  to  eight  feet  square :  provided,  that  at  the 
start,  and  from  that  time  until  the  arrival  of  the  females,  he  is  strong 
enough  to  hold  this  ground  against  all  comers  ;  inasmuch  as  the 
crowding  in  of  fresh  arrivals  often  causes  a  removal  of  those 
which,  though  equally  able-bodied  at  first,  have  exhausted  them- 
selves by  fighting  earlier  and  constantly,  they  are  finally  driven  by 
these  fresher  animals  back  farther  and  higher  up  on  the  rookery, 
and  sometimes  off  altogether. 

The  labor  of  locating  and  maintaining  a  position  on  the  rookery 
is  real,  terrible  and  serious  business  for  these  bulls  which  come  in 
last,  and  it  is  so  all  the  time  to  those  males  that  occupy  the  water- 
line  of  the  breeding  grounds.  A  constantly  sustained  fight  between 
the  new-comers  and  the  occupants  goes  on  morning,  noon,  and  night, 
without  cessation,  frequently  resulting  in  death  to  one,  or  even  both, 
of  the  combatants.  The  "  seecatchie  "  under  six  years  of  age,  al- 
though hovering  about  the  sea-margins  of  the  breeding  grounds, 
do  not  engage  in  much  fighting  there  ;  it  is  the  six  and  seven  year 
old  males,  ambitious  and  flushed  with  a  full  sense  of  their  re- 
productive ability,  that  swarm  out  and  do  battle  with  the  older 
males  of  these  places.  A  young  male  of  this  latter  class  is,  how- 
ever, no  match  for  any  fifteen  or  twenty  year  old  bull,  provided 
that  an  old  "  seecatchie  "  retains  his  teeth  ;  for,  with  these  weapons, 
his  relatively  harder  thews  and  sinews  give  him  the  advantage  in 
almost  every  instance  among  the  hundreds  of  combats  that  I  have 
witnessed.  These  trials  of  strength  between  the  old  and  the  young 
are  incessant  until  the  rookeries  are  mapped  out ;  since,  by  common 
consent,  the  males  of  all  classes  recognize  the  coming  of  the  females. 
After  their  arrival  and  settlement  over  the  whole  extent  of  the 
breeding  grounds,  about  July  15th  at  the  latest,  very  little  fighting 
takes  place. 

Many  of  those  bulls  exhibit  wonderful  strength  and  desperate 
courage.  I  marked  one  veteran  at  Gorbatch,  who  was  the  first  to 
take  up  his  position  early  in  May,  and  that  position,  as  usual, 
directly  on  the  water-line.  This  male  seal  had  fought  at  least  forty 
or  fifty  desperate  battles,  and  beaten  off  his  assailants  every  time — 
perhaps  nearly  as  many  different  seals  each  of  which  had  coveted  his 
position — when  the  fighting  season  was  over  (after  the  cows  are 


266  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

mostly  all  hauled  up),  I  saw  him  still  there,  covered  with  scars  and 
frightfully  gashed — raw,  festering,  and  bloody,  one  eye  gouged  out 
— but  lording  it  bravely  over  his  harem  of  fifteen  or  twenty  females, 
which  were  all  huddled  together  around  him  on  the  same  spot  of  his 
first  location. 

This  fighting  between  the  old  and  adult  males  (for  none  others 
fight)  is  mostly,  or  rather  entirely,  done  with  the  mouth.  The  op- 
ponents seize  one  another  with  their  teeth,  and  thus  clinching  their 
jaws,  nothing  but  the  sheer  strength  of  the  one  and  the  other  tug- 
ging to  escape  can  shake  them  loose  ;  then,  that  effort  invariably 
leaves  an  ugly  wound,  for  the  sharp  canines  tear  out  deep  gutters 
in  the  skin  and  furrows  in  the  blubber,  or  shred  the  flippers  into 
ribbon-strips. 

They  usually  approach  each  other  with  comically  averted  heads, 
just  as  though  they  were  ashamed  of  the  rumpus  which  they  are  de- 
termined to  precipitate.  When  they  get  near  enough  to  reach  one 
another,  they  enter  upon  the  repetition  of  many  feints  or  passes  be- 
fore either  one  or  the  other  takes  the  initiative  by  gripping.  The 
heads  are  darted  out  and  back  as  quick  as  a  flash ;  their  hoarse 
roaring  and  shrill,  piping  whistle  never  ceases,  while  their  fat 
bodies  writhe  and  swell  with  exertion  and  rage  ;  furious  lights 
gleam  in  their  eyes,  their  hair  flies  in  the  air,  and  their  blood 
streams  down, — all  combined  makes  a  picture  so  fierce  and  so 
strange  that,  from  its  unexpected  position  and  its  novelty,  it  is 
perhaps  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  brutal  contests  which  a  man 
can  witness. 

In  these  battles  of  the  seals  the  parties  are  always  distinct ;  the 
one  is  offensive,  the  other,  defensive.  If  the  latter  proves  the 
weaker,  he  withdraws  from  the  position  occupied,  and  is  never  fol- 
lowed by  his  conqueror,  who  complacently  throws  up  one  of  his 
hind  flippers,  fans  himself,  as  it  were,  to  cool  his  fevered  wrath  and 
blood  from  the  heat  of  the  conflict,  sinks  into  comparative  quiet, 
only  uttering  a  peculiar  chuckle  of  satisfaction  or  contempt,  with  a 
sharp  eye  open  for  another  covetous  bull  or  "  see-catch."  * 

That  period  occupied  by  the  males  in  taking  and  holding  their 
positions  on  a  rookery  offers  a  very  favorable  opportunity  to 
study  them  in  the  thousand  and  one  different  attitudes  and  postures 

u  See-catch,"  is  the  native  name  for  a  bull  on  the  rookeries,  especially 
one  which  is  able  to  maintain  its  position. 


'5V 


S     MILLIONS. 

imed  between  the  two  extremes  of  desperate  conflict  and  deep 
steep — sleep  so  profound  that  one  can,  if  he  keeps  to  the  leeward, 
approach  close  enough,  stepping  softly,  to  pull  the  whiskers  of  any 
old  male  taking  a  nap  on  a  clear  place.  But  after  the  first  touch  to 
these  mustaches  the  trifler  must  jump  back  with  electrical  celerity, 
if  he  has  any  regard  for  the  sharp  teeth  and  tremendous  shaking 
which  will  surely  overtake  him  if  he  does  not.  The  younger  seals 
sleep  far  more  soundly  than  the  old  ones,  and  it  is  a  favorite  pas- 
tor the  natives  to  surprise  them  in  this  manner — favorite,  be- 
cause it  is  attended  with  no  personal  risk.  The  little  beasts,  those 
amphibious  sleepers,  rise  suddenly,  and  fairly  shrink  to  the  earth, 
spitting  and  coughing  out  in  their  terror  and  confusion. 

The  neck,  chest,  and  shoulders  of  a  fur-seal  bull  comprise  more 
than  two-thirds  of  his  whole  weight ;  and  in  this  long,  thick  neck 
and  the  powerful  muscles  of  the  fore-limbs  and  shoulders  is  em- 
bodied the  larger  portion  of  his  strength.  When  on  land,  with  the 
fore-hands  he  does  all  climbing  over  rocks  and  grassy  hummocks 
back  of  the  rookery,  or  shuffles  his  halting  way  over  smooth 
parades — the  hind-feet  are  gathered  up  as  useless  trappings  after 
second  step  forward,  which  we  have  described  at  the  outset 
of  this  chapter.  These  anterior  nippers  are  also  the  propelling 
power  when  in  water,  and  exclusive  machinery  with  which  they 
drive  their  rapid  passage — the  hinder  ones  float  behind  like  the 
steering  sweep  to  a  whale-boat,  and  are  used  evidently  as  rudders, 
or  as  the  tail  of  a  bird  is,  while  its  wings  sustain  and  force  its  rapid 
flight 

The  covering  to  its  body  is  composed  of  two  coats,  one  being  a 
short,  crisp,  glistening  over-hair,  and  the  other  a  close,  soft,  elastic 
pelage  or  fur,  which  gives  a  distinctive  value  to  the  pelt.  I  can 
call  it  readily  to  the  mind  of  my  readers  when  I  say  to  them  that 
the  down  and  feathers  on  the  breast  of  a  duck  lie  relatively  as  the 
fur  and  hair  do  upon  the  skin  of  the  seaL 

At  this  season  of  first  "  hauling  up  "  *  in  the  spring  the  prevail- 
ing color  of  the  bulls,  after  they  dry  off  and  have  been  exposed  to 
the  weather,  is  a  dark,  dull  brown,  with  a  sprinkling  in  it  of  lighter 
brown-black,  and  a  number  of  hoary  or  grizzled  gray  coats  peculiar 


*  "  Hauling  up."  is  a  technical  term  applied  to  the  action  of  seals  when 
they  land  from  the  surf  and  haul  up  or  drag  themselves  over  the  beach.     It 
;>ressive  and  appropriate,  as  are  most  of  the  sealing  phrases. 


268  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

to  the  very  old  males.  On  the  shoulders  of  all  of  them — that  is, 
the  adults — the  over-hair  is  either  a  gray  or  rufous-ochre  or  a 
very  emphatic  "pepper  and  salt."  This  is  called  the  "wig."  The 
body-colors  *  are  most  intense  and  pronounced  upon  the  back  of 
ths  head,  neck,  and  spine,  fading  down  on  the  flanks  lighter,  to 
much  lighter  ground  on  the  abdomen  ;  still  never  white  or  even  a 
clean  gray,  so  beautiful  and  peculiar  to  them  when  young,  and  to 
the  females.  The  skin  of  the  muzzle  and  flippers  is  a  dark  bluish- 
black,  fading  in  the  older  examples  to  a  reddish  and  purplish  tint. 
The  color  of  the  ears  and  tail  is  similar  to  that  of  the  body,  perhaps 
a  trifle  lighter.  The  ears  on  a  bull  fur-seal  are  from  one  inch  to  an 
inch  and  a  half  in  length.  The  pavilions  or  auricles  are  tightly 
rolled  up  on  themselves,  so  that  they  are  similar  in  shape  to  and 
exactly  the  size  of  the  little  finger  on  the  human  hand,  cut  off  at 
the  second  phalangeal  joint — a  trifle  more  cone-shaped,  however — as 
they  are  greater  at  the  base  than  they  are  at  the  tip.  They  are 
haired  and  furred  as  the  body  is. 

I  think  it  probable  that  this  animal  is  able  to  and  does  exert  the 
power  of  compressing  or  dilating  this  scroll-like  pavilion  to  its  ear, 
just  according  as  it  dives  deeper  or  rises  in  the  water,  and  also  I 
am  quite  sure  that  the  hair-seal  has  this  control  over  its  meatus  ex- 
ternus,  from  what  I  have  seen  of  it.  I  have  not  been  able  to  verify 
it  in  either  case  by  actual  observation ;  yet  such  opportunity  as  I 
have  had  gives  me  undoubted  proof  of  the  fact  that  the  hearing  of 
a  fur-seal  is  wonderfully  keen  and  surpassingly  acute.  If  you 
make  any  noise,  no  matter  how  slight,  an  alarm  will  be  given  in- 
stantly by  these  insignificant-looking  auditors,  and  the  animal, 
awaking  from  profound  sleep,  assumes,  with  a  single  motion,  an 
erect  posture,  gives  a  stare  of  stupid  astonishment,  at  the  same  time 
breaking  out  into  incessant,  surly  roaring,  growling,  and  "  spit- 
ting," if  it  be  an  old  male. 

This  spitting,  as  I  call  it,  is  by  no  means  a  fair  or  full  expression 
of  a  most  characteristic  sound  or  action,  so  far  as  I  have  ob- 

*  There  is  also  perfect  uniformity  in  the  coloration  of  the  breeding  coats 
of  fur-seals,  which  is  strikingly  manifest  while  inspecting  the  rookeries 
late  in  July,  when  they  are  solidly  massed  thereon.  At  a  quarter-mile  dis- 
tance the  whole  immense  aggregate  of  animal  life  seems  to  be  fused  into  a 
huge  homogeneous  body  that  is  alternately  roused  up  in  sections  and  then 
composed,  just  as  a  quantity  of  iron-filings  covering  the  bottom  of  a  saucer 
will  rise  and  fall  when  a  magnet  is  passed  over  and  around  the  dish. 


AMPHIBIA.V    MILLIONS.  269 

served,  peculiar  to  fur-seals  alone,  the  bulls  in  particular.  It  is 
the  usual  prelude  to  all  their  combats,  and  it  is  their  signal  of  as- 
tonishment. It  follows  somewhat  in  this  way :  when  the  two  dis- 
putants are  nearly  within  reaching  or  striking  distance,  they  make 
a  number  of  feints  or  false  passes,  as  fencing-masters  do,  at  one  an- 
other, with  the  mouth  wide  open,  lifting  the  lips  or  snarling  so  as 
to  exhibit  their  glistening  teeth  ;  with  each  pass  of  the  head  and 
neck  they  expel  the  air  so  violently  through  the  larynx  as  to  cause 
a  rapid  choo-choo-choo  sound,  like  steam-puffs  as  they  escape  from 
the  smoke-stack  of  a  locomotive  when  it  starts  a  heavy  train,  espe- 
cially while  the  driving-wheels  slip  on  the  rail. 

All  of  the  bulls  have  the  power  and  frequent  inclination  to  utter 
four  distinct  calls  or  notes.  This  is  not  the  case  with  the  sea-lion, 
whose  voice  is  confined  to  a  single  bass  roar,  or  that  of  the  walrus, 
which  is  limited  to  a  dull  grunt,  or  that  of  the  hair-seal,  which  is  al- 
most inaudible.  This  volubility  of  the  adult  male  is  decidedly  charac- 
teristic and  prominent.  He  utters  a  hoarse,  resonant  roar,  loud  and 
long ;  he  gives  vent  to  a  low,  entirely  different  gurgling  growl ;  he 
emits  a  chuckling,  sibilant,  piping  whistle,  of  which  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  convey  an  adequate  idea,  for  it  must  be  heard  to  be  under- 
stood, and  this  spitting  or  choo  sound  just  mentioned.  The  cow  * 
has  but  one  note — a  hollow,  prolonged,  bla-a-ting  call,  addressed 
only  to  her  pup  :  on  all  other  occasions  she  is  usually  silent ;  it 
is  something  strangely  like  the  cry  of  a  calf  or  an  old  sheep. 
She  also  makes  a  spitting  sound  or  snort  when  suddenly  disturbed 
— a  kind  of  cough,  as  it  were.  The  pups  "  blaat "  also,  with  little 
or  no  variation,  their  sound  being  somewhat  weaker  and  hoarser 

*  Without  explanation  I  may  be  considered  as  making  use  of  paradoxical 
language  by  using  these  terms  of  description,  since  the  inconsistency  of  talking 
of  "pups,"  with  "cows,"  and  ''bulls,"  and  "rookeries,"  on  the  breeding 
grounds  of  the  same,  cannot  fail  to  be  noticed  ;  but  this  nomenclature  has 
been  given  and  used  by  the  American  and  English  whaling  and  sealing  parties 
for  many  years,  and  the  characteristic  features  of  the  seals  themselves  so  suit 
the  naming  that  I  have  felt  satisfied  to  retain  the  style  throughout  as  render- 
ing my  description  more  intelligible,  especially  so  to  those  who  are  engaged  in 
the  business  or  may  be  hereafter.  The  Russians  are  more  consistent,  but  not 
so  "pat."  They  call  the  bull  "see-catch,"  a  term  implying  strength,  vigor, 
etc.;  the  cow,  "  matkah."  or  mother;  the  pups,  "kotickie,"  or  little  seals; 
the  non-breeding  males  under  six  and  seven  years,  "  holluschickie,"  or  bache- 
lors. The  name  applied  collectively  to  the  fur-seal  by  them  is  "  morskie-kot," 
or  sea-cat. 


270  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

after  birth  than  their  mother's.  They,  too,  comically  spit  or  cough 
when  aroused  suddenly  from  a  nap  or  driven  into  a  corner,  open- 
ing their  little  mouths  (like  young  birds  in  a  nest)  when  at  bay, 
backed  up  in  some  crevice  or  against  grassy  tussocks. 

Indeed,  so  similar  is  that  call  of  the  female  to  the  bleating  of 
sheep  that  a  number  of  the  latter,  which  the  Alaska  Commercial 
Company  had  brought  up  from  San  Francisco  to  St.  George  Island 
during  the  summer  of  1873,  were  constantly  attracted  to  the  rook- 
eries, and  were  running  in  among  the  "  holluschickie  "  so  much  that 
they  neglected  better  pasturage  on  the  uplands  beyond,  and  a  small 
boy  had  to  be  regularly  employed  to  herd  them  where  they  would 
feed  to  advantage.  These  transported  Ovidce,  though  they  could 
not  possibly  find  anything  in  their  eyes  suggestive  of  companionship 
among  the  seals,  had  their  ears  so  charmed  by  those  sheep-like  ac- 
cents of  the  female  pinnipeds  as  to  persuade  them  in  spite  of  their 
senses  of  vision  and  smell. 

The  sound  which  arises  from  these  great  breeding  grounds  of 
the  fur-seal,  where  thousands  upon  tens  of  thousands  of  angry,  vigi- 
\J  lant  bulls  are  roaring,  chuckling,  and  piping,  and  multitudes  of 
seal-mothers  are  calling  in  hollow,  bleating  tones  to  their  young, 
that  in  turn  respond  incessantly,  is  simple  defiance  to  verbal  de- 
scription. It  is,  at  a  slight  distance,  softened  into  a  deep  boom- 
ing, as  of  a  cataract ;  and  I  have  heard  it,  with  a  light,  fair  wind  to 
the  leeward,  as  far  as  six  miles  out  from  land  on  the  sea  ;  even 
in  the  thunder  of  the  surf  and  the  roar  of  heavy  gales,  it  will 
rise  up  and  over  to  your  ear  for  quite  a  considerable  distance  away. 
It  is  a  monitor  which  the  sea-captains  anxiously  strain  their  ears 
for,  when  they  run  their  dead  reckoning  up,  and  are  lying  to  for 
the  fog  to  rise,  in  order  that  they  may  get  their  bearings  of  the 
land.  Once  heard,  they  hold  on  to  the  sound,  and  feel  their  way 
in  to  anchor.  The  seal-roar  at  "  Novastoshnah  "  during  the  summer 
of  1872  saved  the  life  of  a  surgeon,*  and  six  natives  belonging  to 
the  village,  who  had  pushed  out  on  an  egging  trip  from  Northeast 
Point  to  Walrus  Island.  I  have  sometimes  thought,  as  I  have  lis- 

*  Dr.  Otto  Cramer:  The  suddenness  with  which  fog  and  wind  shut  down  and 
sweep  over  the  sea  here,  even  when  the  day  opens  most  auspiciously  for  a  short 
boat-voyage,  has  so  alarmed  the  natives  in  times  past  that  a  visit  is  now  never 
made  by  them  from  island  to  island,  unless  on  one  of  the  company's  vessels 
Several  bidarrahs  have  never  been  heard  from,  which,  in  earlier  times,  at- 
tempted to  sail,  with  picked  crews  of  the  natives,  from  one  island  to  the  other. 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS. 


271 


tened  all  night  long  to  this  volume  of  extraordinary  sound,  which 
never  ceases  with  the  rising  or  the  setting  of  the  sun  throughout 
the  entire  period  of  breeding,  that  it  was  fully  equal  to  the  churn- 
ing boom  of  the  waves  of  Niagara.  Night  and  day,  belonging  to 
that  season,  vibrates  with  this  steady  and  constant  din  upon  the 
rookeries. 


Fur-seals  Scratching  Themselves. 
[Off  the  Black  Blttfe,  St.  Paufs  Island.} 

The  most  casual  observer  will  notice  that  these  seals  seem  to  suf- 
fer great  inconvenience  and  positive  misery  from  a  comparatively  low 
degree  of  heat.  I  have  often  been  surprised  to  observe  that,  when 
the  temperature  was  46°  and  48°  Fahr.  on  land  during  the  summer, 
they  would  show  everywhere  signs  of  distress,  whenever  they  made 
any  exertion  in  moving  or  fighting,  evidenced  by  panting  and  the  ele- 
vation of  their  hind  nippers,  which  they  used  incessantly  as  so  many 
fans.  With  the  thermometer  again  higher,  as  it  is  at  rare  intervals, 


272  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

standing  at  55°  and  60°,  they  are  then  oppressed  even  when  at  rest ; 
and  at  such  times  the  eye  is  struck  by  the  kaleidoscopic  appearance 
of  a  rookery — in  any  of  these  rookeries  where  the  seals  are  spread 
out  in  every  imaginable  position  their  lithesome  bodies  can  assume, 
all  industriously  fan  themselves  :  they  use  sometimes  the  fore  flip- 
pers as  ventilators,  as  it  were,  by  holding  them  aloft  motionless,  at 
the  same  time  fanning  briskly  with  the  hinder  ones,  according  as 
they  sit  or  lie.  This  wavy  motion  of  fanning  or  flapping  gives  a 
hazy  indistinctness  to  the  whole  scene,  which  is  difficult  to  express 
in  language  ;  but  one  of  the  most  prominent  characteristics  of  the 
fur-seal,  and  perhaps  the  most  unique  feature,  is  this  very  fanning 
manner  in  which  they  use  their  flippers,  when  seen  on  the  breeding 
grounds  at  this  season.  They  also,  when  idle,  as  it  were,  off-shore 
at  sea,  lie  on  their  sides  in  the  water  with  only  a  partial  exposure 
of  the  body,  the  head  submerged,  and  then  hoist  up  a  fore  or  hind 
flipper  clear  out  of  the  water,  at  the  same  time  scratching  them- 
selves or  enjoying  a  momentary  nap  ;  but  in  this  position  there  is 
no  fanning.  I  say  "  scratching,"  because  the  seal,  in  common  with 
all  animals,  is  preyed  upon  by  vermin,  and  it  has  a  peculiar  species 
of  louse,  or  parasitic  tick,  which  annoys  it. 

Speaking  of  seals  as  they  rest  in  the  water  leads  me  to  remark 
that  they  seem  to  sleep  as  sound  and  as  comfortably,  bedded  on 
the  waves  or  rolled  by  the  swell,  as  they  do  on  the  land.  They  lie 
on  their  backs,  fold  the  fore  flippers  down  across  the  chest,  and 
turn  the  hind  ones  up  and  over,  so  that  the  tips  rest  on  their  necks 
and  chins,  thus  exposing  simply  the  nose  and  the  heels  of  the  hind 
nippers  above  water,  nothing  else  being  seen.  In  this  position,  un- 
less it  is  very  rough,  the  seal  sleeps  as  serenely  as  did  the  prototype 
of  that  memorable  song,  who  was  "  rocked  in  the  cradle  of  the 
deep." 

All  the  bulls,  from  the  very  first,  that  have  been  able  to  hold 
their  positions,  have  not  left  them  from  the  moment  of  their 
landing  for  a  single  instant,  night  or  day ;  nor  will  they  do  so 
until  the  end  of  the  rutting  season,  which  subsides  entirely  between 
August  1st  and  10th — it  begins  shortly  after  the  coming  of  the 
cows  in  June.  Of  necessity,  therefore,  this  causes  them  to  fast, 
to  abstain  entirely  from  food  of  any  kind,  or  water,  for  three 
months  at  least ;  and  a  few  of  them  actually  stay  out  four  months, 
in  total  abstinence,  before  going  back  into  the  ocean  for  the  first 
time  after  "  hauling  up  "  in  May.  They  then  return  as  so  many 


AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS.  273 

bony  shadows  of  what  they  were  only  a  few  months  previously ; 
covered  with  wounds,  abject  and  spiritless,  they  laboriously  crawl 
back  to  the  sea  to  renew  a  fresh  lease  of  life. 

Such  physical  endurance  is  remarkable  enough  alone  ;  but  it  is 
simply  wonderful  when  we  come  to  associate  this  fasting  with  the 
unceasing  activity,  restlessness,  and  duty  devolved  upon  the  bulls 
as  the  heads  of  large  families.  They  do  not  stagnate  like  hibernat- 
ing bears  in  caves  ;  there  is  not  one  torpid  breath  drawn  by  them 
in  the  whole  period  of  their  fast.  It  is  evidently  sustained  and  accom- 
plished by  the  self-absorption  of  their  own  fat,  with  which  they  are 
so  liberally  supplied  when  they  first  come  out  from  the  sea  and  take 
up  their  positions  on  the  breeding  grounds,  and  which  gradually 
disappears,  until  nothing  but  the  staring  hide,  protruding  tendons 
and  bones  mark  the  limit  of  their  abstinence.  There  must  be  some 
remarkable  provision  made  by  nature  for  the  entire  torpidity  of  the 
seals'  stomachs  and  bowels,  in  consequence  of  their  being  empty 
and  unsupplied  during  this  long  period,  coupled  with  the  intense 
activity  and  physical  energy  of  the  animals  throughout  that  time, 
which,  however,  in  spite  of  the  violation  of  a  supposed  physiological 
law,  does  not  seem  to  affect  them,  for  they  come  back  just  as  sleek, 
fat,  and  ambitious  as  ever,  in  the  following  season.  That  the  seals 
drink  or  need  fresh  water,  I  doubt  ;  but  they  cool  their  mouths  in- 
cessantly by  swimming  with  them  wide  open  through  the  waves, 
laving  as  it  were  their  hot  throats  and  lips  in  the  flood.* 

Between  June  12th  and  14th,  the  first  of  the  cow-seals,  as  a 
rule,  come  up  from  the  sea  ;  then  that  long  agony  of  the  waiting 
bulls  is  over,  and  they  signalize  it  by  a  period  of  universal,  spas- 
modic, desperate  fighting  among  themselves.  Though  they  have 
quarrelled  all  the  time  from  the  moment  they  first  landed,  and  con- 


*  "  Do  these  seals  drink  ?  "  is  a  question  doubtless  often  uppermost  and 
suggested  to  the  observer's  eye,  as  he  watches  those  animals  going  to  the  water 
from  the  hauling-grounds  and  the  rookeries  ;  at  least  it  was  in  mine.  I  never 
could  detect  a  caUorhinus  or  a  eumetopias  lapping,  either  in  the  fresh-water  pools 
and  lakes,  or  in  the  brackish  lagoon,  or  the  sea  ;  but  it  plunges  at  times  into 
the  rollers  with  its  jaws  wide  open  as  it  dives,  reappearing  quickly  in  the  same 
manner  to  dip  and  rise  again,  many  times  in  rapid  succession,  as  it  swims 
along,  the  water  running  in  little  streams  from  the  corners  of  the  open  mouth 
whenever  iU  head  pops  above  the  surface.  Whether  this  action  was  simply 
to  cool  itself,  or  that  of  drinking,  I  am  not  prepared  to  assert  positively.  I 
think  it  was  to  meet  both  purposes. 
18 


274  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

tinue  to  do  so  until  the  end  of  the  season,  in  August,  yet  that  fight- 
ing which  takes  place  at  this  date  is  the  bloodiest  and  most  vindic- 
tive known  to  the  seal.  I  presume  that  the  heaviest  percentage  of 
mutilation  and  death  among  the  old  males  from  these  brawls,  occur 
in  this  week  of  the  earliest  appearance  of  the  females. 

A  strong  contrast  now  between  the  males  and  females  looms  up, 
both  in  size  and  shape,  which  is  heightened  by  an  air  of  exceeding 
peace  and  dove-like  amiability  which  the  latter  class  exhibit,  in  con- 
tradistinction to  the  ferocity  and  saturnine  behavior  of  the  former.* 
The  cows  are  from  four  to  four  and  a  half  feet  in  length  from  head 
to  tail,  and  much  more  shapely  in  their  proportions  than  the  bulls; 
there  is  no  wrapping  around  their  necks  and  shoulders  of  unsightly 
masses  of  blubber ;  their  lithe,  elastic  forms,  from  the  first  to  the 
last  of  the  season,  are  never  altered  ;  they  are,  however,  enabled  to 
keep  such  shape,  because,  in  the  provision  of  seal  economy,  they 
sustain  no  protracted  fasting  period ;  for,  soon  after  the  birth  of 
their  young  they  leave  it  on  the  ground  and  go  to  the  sea  for  food, 
returning  perhaps  to-morrow,  may  be  later,  or  even  not  for  several 
days  in  fact,  to  again  suckle  and  nourish  it ;  having  in  the  mean- 
time sped  far  off  to  distant  fishing  banks,  and  satiated  a  hunger 
which  so  active  and  highly  organized  an  animal  must  experience, 
when  deprived  of  sustenance  for  any  length  of  time. 

As  the  females  come  up  wet  and  dripping  from  the  water,  they 
are  at  first  a  dull,  dirty-gray  color,  dark  on  the  back  and  upper 
parts,  but  in  a  few  hours  the  transformation  in  their  appearance 
made  by  drying  is  wonderful.  You  would  hardly  believe  that  they 
could  be  the  same  animals,  for  they  now  fairly  glisten  with  a  rich 
steel  and  maltese  gray  lustre  on  the  back  of  the  head,  the  neck,  and 

*  The  old  males,  when  grouped  together  by  themselves,  indulge  in  no 
humor  or  frolicsome  festivities  whatsoever.  On  the  contrary,  they  treat  each 
other  with  surly  indifference.  The  mature  females,  however,  do  not  appear 
to  lose  their  good  nature  to  anything  like  so  marked  a  degree  as  do  their  lords 
and  masters,  for  they  will  at  all  seasons  of  their  presence  on  the  islands  be  ob- 
served, now  and  then,  to  suddenly  unbend  from  severe  matronly  gravity  by 
coyly  and  amiably  tickling  and  gently  teasing  one  another,  as  they  rest  in  the 
harems,  or  later,  when  strolling  in  September.  There  is  no  sign  given,  how- 
ever, by  these  seal-mothers  of  a  desire  or  attempt  to  fondle  or  caress  their 
pups ;  nor  do  the  young  appear  to  sport  with  any  others  than  the  pups  them- 
selves, when  together.  Sometimes  a  yearling  and  a  five  or  six  months  old  pup 
will  have  a  long-continued  game  between  themselves.  They  are  decidedly 
clannish  in  this  respect— creatures  of  caste,  like  Hindoos. 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  275 

along  down  the  spine,  which  blends  into  an  almost  snow-white  over 
the  chest  and  on  the  abdomen.  But,  this  beautiful  coloring  in  turn 
is  again  altered  by  exposure  to  the  same  weather  ;  for,  after  a  few 
days  it  will  gradually  change,  so  that  by  the  lapse  of  two  or  three 
weeks  it  is  a  dull,  rufous-ochre  below,  and  a  cinereous  brown  and 
gray  mixed  above.  This  color  they  retain  throughout  the  breeding 
season,  up  to  the  time  of  shedding  their  coats  in  August. 

The  head  and  eye  of  the  female  are  exceedingly  beautiful ;  the 
expression  is  really  attractive,  gentle,  and  intelligent ;  the  large,  lus- 
trous, blue-black  eyes  are  humid  and  soft  with  the  tenderest  expres- 
sion, while  the  small,  well-formed  head  is  poised  as  gracefully  on 
her  neck  as  can  be  well  imagined  ;  she  is  the  very  picture  of  benig- 
nity and  satisfaction,  when  she  is  perched  up  on  some  convenient 
rock,  and  has  an  opportunity  to  quietly  fan  herself,  the  eyes  half- 
closed  and  the  head  thrown  back  on  her  gently-swelling  shoulders. 

The  females  land  on  these  islands,  not  from  the  slightest  desire 
to  see  their  uncouth  lords  and  masters,  but  from  an  accurate  and 
instinctive  appreciation  of  the  time  in  which  their  period  of  ges- 
tation ends.  They  are  in  fact  driven  up  to  the  rookeries  by  this 
cause  alone ;  the  young  cannot  be  brought  forth  in  the  water,  and,  in 
all  cases  marked  by  myself,  the  pups  were  born  soon  after  landing, 
some  in  a  few  hours,  but,  most  usually,  a  day  or  so  elapses  before 
delivery.  They  are  noticed  and  received  by  the  males  at  the 
water-line  stations  with  attention  ;  they  are  alternately  coaxed  and 
urged  up  on  to  the  rocks,  as  far  as  these  beach-masters  can  do 
so,  by  chuckling,  whistling,  and  roaring,  and  then  they  are  imme- 
diately under  the  most  jealous  supervision  ;  but,  owing  to  the 
covetous  and  ambitious  nature  of  those  bulls  which  occupy  these 
stations  to  the  rear  of  the  water-line  and  away  back,  the  little  cows 
have  a  rough-and-tumble  time  of  it,  when  they  begin  to  arrive  in 
small  numbers  at  first ;  for  no  sooner  is  the  pretty  animal  fairly 
established  on  the  station  of  male  number  one,  who  has  welcomed 
her  there,  than  he,  perhaps,  sees  another  one  of  her  style  in  the 
water  from  whence  she  has  come,  and,  in  obedience  to  his  polyg- 
amous feeling,  devotes  himself  anew  to  coaxing  the  later  arrival, 
by  that  same  winning  manner  so  successful  in  the  first  case  ;  then 
when  bull  number  two,  just  back,  observes  bull  number  one  off 
guard,  he  reaches  out  with  his  long  strong  neck  and  picks  up  the 
unhappy  but  passive  cow  by  the  scruff  of  hers,  just  as  a  cat  does 
a  kitten,  and  deposits  her  upon  his  seraglio  ground  ;  then  bulls 


276  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

number  three  and  four,  and  so  on,  in  the  vicinity,  seeing  this  high- 
handed operation,  all  assail  one  another,  especially  number  two, 
and  for  a  moment  have  a  tremendous  fight,  perhaps  lasting  half 
a  minute  or  so,  and  during  this  commotion  the  little  cow  is  gener- 
ally moved,  or  moves,  farther  back  from  the  water,  two  or  three 
stations  more,  where,  when  all  gets  quiet  again,  she  usually  remains 
in  peace.  Her  last  lord  and  master,  not  having  that  exposure  to 
such  diverting  temptation  as  her  first,  gives  her  such  care  that  she 
not  only  is  unable  to  leave,  did  she  wish,  but  no  other  bull  can  seize 
upon  her  :  this  is  only  a  faint  and  (I  fully  appreciate  it)  wholly  in- 
adequate description  of  the  hurly-burly  and  that  method  by  which 
the  rookeries  are  filled  up,  from  first  to  last,  when  the  females  ar- 
rive—it is  only  one  instance  of  the  many  trials  and  tribulations 
which  both  parties  on  the  rookery  subject  themselves  to,  before  the 
harems  are  filled.  * 

Far  back,  fifteen  or  twenty  "  see-catchie "  stations  deep  from 
the  water-line,  and  sometimes  more,  but  generally  not  over  an 
average  of  ten  or  fifteen,  the  cows  crowd  in  at  the  close  of  the 

*  When  the  females  first  come  ashore  there  is  no  sign  whatever  of  affec- 
tion manifested  between  the  sexes.  The  males  are  surly  and  morose,  and 
the  females  entirely  indifferent  to  such  reception.  They  are,  however,  sub- 
jected to  very  harsh  treatment  sometimes  in  progress  of  battles  between  the 
males  for  their  possession,  and  a  few  of  them  are  badly  bitten  and  lacerated 
every  season. 

One  of  the  cows  that  arrived  at  Nahspeel,  St.  Paul's  Island,  early  in  June, 
1872,  was  treated  to  a  mutilation  in  this  manner,  under  my  eyes.  When  she 
had  finally  landed  on  the  barren  rocks  of  one  of  the  numerous  "seecatchie" 
at  the  water-front  of  this  small  rookery,  and  while  I  was  carefully  making  a 
sketch  of  her  graceful  outlines,  a  rival  bull,  adjacent,  reached  out  from  his 
station  and  seized  her  with  his  mouth  at  the  nape  of  the  neck,  just  as  a  cat 
lifts  a  kitten.  At  the  same  instant,  almost  simultaneously,  the  old  male  that 
was  rightfully  entitled  to  her  charms,  turned,  and  caught  her  in  his  teeth  by 
the  skin  of  her  posterior  dorsal  region.  There  she  was,  lifted  and  suspended 
in  mid-air,  between  the  jaws  of  the  furious  rivals,  until,  in  obedience  to  their 
powerful  struggles,  the  hide  of  her  back  gave  way,  and,  as  a  ragged  flap 
of  the  raw  skin  more  than  six  inches  broad  and  a  foot  in  length  was  torn 
up  and  from  her  spine,  she  passed,  with  a  rush,  into  the  possession  of  the  bull 
which  had  covetously  seized  her.  She  uttered  no  cry  during  this  barbarous 
treatment,  nor  did  she,  when  settled  again,  turn  to  her  torn  and  bleeding 
wound  to  notice  it  in  any  way  whatsoever  that  I  could  observe. 

I  may  add  here  that  I  never  saw  the  seals  under  such,  or  any  circumstances, 
lick  or  nurse  their  wounds  as  dogs  or  cats  do ;  but,  when  severe  inflammation 
takes  place,  they  seek  the  water,  disappearing  promptly  from  scrutiny. 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  277 

season  for  arriving,  which  is  by  July  10th  or  14th  ;  then  they 
are  able  to  go  about  very  much  as  they  please,  for  the  bulls  have 
become  so  greatly  enfeebled  by  this  constant  fasting,  fighting,  and 
excitement  during  the  past  two  months,  that  they  are  quite  content 
now  with  only  one  or  two  partners,  even  if  they  should  have  no  more. 

The  cows  seem  to  haul  up  in  compact  bodies  from  the 
water,  covering  in  the  whole  ground  to  the  rear  of  the  rookeries, 
never  scattering  about  over  the  surface  of  this  area  ;  they  have 
mapped  out,  from  the  first,  their  chosen  resting-places,  and  they  will 
not  He  quietly  in  any  position  outside  of  the  great  mass  of  their 
kind.  This  is  due  to  their  intensely  gregarious  nature,  and  is  espe- 
cially adapted  for  their  protection.  And  here  I  should  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that  they  select  this  rookery  ground  with  all  the  skill  of 
civil  engineers.  It  is  preferred  with  special  reference  to  drain- 
age, for  it  must  slope  so  that  the  produce  of  constantly  dissolving 
fogs  and  rain-clouds  shall  not  lie  upon  it,  since  they  have  a  great 
aversion  to,  and  a  firm  determination  not  to  rest  on  water-puddled 
ground.  This  is  admirably  exhibited,  and  will  be  understood  by  a 
study  of  my  sketch-maps  which  follow,  illustrative  of  these  rook- 
eries and  the  area  and  position  of  the  seals  upon  them.  Every  one 
of  those  breeding  grounds  rises  up  gently  from  the  sea,  and  on 
no  one  of  them  is  there  anything  like  a  muddy  flat. 

I  found  it  an  exceedingly  difficult  matter  to  satisfy  myself  as  to 
a  fair  general  average  number  of  cows  to  each  bull  on  the  rookery, 
but,  after  protracted  study,  I  think  it  will  be  nearly  correct  when 
I  assign  to  each  male  a  specific  ratio  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty 
females  at  the  stations  nearest  the  water,  and  for  those  back,  in 
order,  from  that  line  to  the  rear,  from  five  to  twelve  ;  but  there  are 
many  exceptional  cases,  and  many  instances  where  forty-five  and 
fifty  females  are  all  under  the  charge  of  one  male  :  and  then,  again, 
where  there  are  only  two  or  three  females  :  hence  this  question  was 
and  is  not  entirely  satisfactory  in  its  settlement  to  my  mind. 

Near  Ketavie  Point,  and  just  above  it  to  the  north,  is  an  odd 
wash-out  of  basalt  by  the  surf,  which  has  chiselled,  as  it  were, 
from  the  foundation  of  the  island,  a  lava  table,  with  a  single  road- 
way or  land  passage  to  it  Upon  the  summit  of  this  footstool  I 
counted  forty-five  cows,  all  under  the  charge  of  one  old  veteran. 
He  had  them  penned  on  this  table-rock  by  taking  his  stand  at 
the  gate,  as  it  were,  through  which  they  passed  up  and  passed 
down — a  Turkish  brute  typified. 


278  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

At  the  rear  of  all  these  rookeries  there  is  invariably  a  large 
number  of  able-bodied  males  which  have  come  late,  and  wait 
patiently,  yet  in  vain,  for  families  ;  most  of  them  having  had  to 
fight  as  desperately  for  the  privilege  of  being  there  as  any  of  their 
more  fortunately  located  neighbors,  who  are  nearer  the  water,  and 
in  succession  from  there  to  where  they  are  themselves  ;  but  the 
cows  do  not  like  to  be  in  any  outside  position.  They  cannot  be 
coaxed  out  where  they  are  not  in  close  company  with  their  female 
mates  and  masses.  They  lie  most  quietly  and  contentedly  in  the 
largest  harems,  and  cover  the  surface  of  the  ground  so  thickly 
that  there  is  hardly  moving  or  turning  room  when  they  cease  to 
come  from  the  sea.  The  inaction  on  the  part  of  those  males  in  the 
rear  during  the  breeding  season  only  serves  to  well  qualify  them  for 
moving  into  the  places  which  are  necessarily  vacated  by  disabled 
males  that  are,  in  the  meantime,  obliged  to  leave  from  virile  exhaus- 
tion, or  incipient  wounds.  All  the  surplus  able-bodied  bulls,  which 
have  not  been  successful  in  effecting  a  landing  on  the  rookeries  can- 
not be  seen  at  any  one  time,  however,  in  the  season,  on  this  rear  line. 
Only  a  portion  of  their  number  are  in  sight ;  the  others  are  either 
loafing  at  sea,  adjacent,  or  are  hauled  out  in-morose  squads  between 
the  rookeries  on  the  beaches.  The  cows,  during  the  whole  season, 
do  great  credit  to  their  amiable  expression  by  their  manner  and 
behavior  on  the  rookery.  They  never  fight  or  quarrel  one  with 
another,  and  never  or  seldom  utter  a  cry  of  pain  or  rage  when  they 
are  roughly  handled  by  the  bulls,  which  frequently  get  a  cow  be- 
tween them  and  actually  tear  the  skin  from  her  back  with  their 
teeth,  cutting  deep  gashes  in  it  as  they  snatch  her  from  mouth  to 
mouth.  If  sand  does  not  get  into  these  wounds  it  is  surprising  how 
rapidly  they  heal ;  and,  from  the  fact  that  I  never  could  see  scars 
on  them  anywhere  except  the  fresh  ones  of  this  year,  they  must 
heal  effectually  and  exhibit  no  trace  the  next  season. 

The  cows,  like  the  bulls,  vary  much  in  weight,  but  the  ex- 
traordinary disparity  in  the  adult  size  of  the  sexes  is  exceedingly 
striking.  Two  females  taken  from  the  rookery  nearest  to  St.  Paul 
village,  right  under  the  bluffs  (and  almost  beneath  the  eaves  of  the 
natives'  houses)  called  "  Nah  Speel,"  after  they  had  brought  forth 
their  young,  were  weighed  by  myself,  and  their  respective  returns 
on  the  scales  were  fifty-six  and  one  hundred  pounds  each  ;  the 
former  being  about  three  or  four  years  old,  and  the  latter  over  six — 
perhaps  ten.  Both  were  fat,  or  rather,  in  good  condition — as  good 


AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS.  279 

as  they  ever  are.  Thus  the  female  is  just  about  one-sixth  the  size 
of  the  male.  Among  the  sea-lions  the  proportion  is  just  one-half 
the  bulk  of  the  male,  while  the  hair-seals,  as  I  have  before  stated, 
are  not  distinguishable  in  this  respect,  as  far  as  I  could  observe, 
but  my  notice  was  limited  to  a  few  specimens  only. 

The  courage  with  which  the  fur-seal  holds  his  position  as  the 
head  and  guardian  of  a  family  is  of  the  highest  order.  I  have  re- 
peatedly tried  to  drive  them  from  their  harem-posts,  when  they 
were  fairly  established  on  their  stations,  and  have,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  failed.  I  might  use  every  stone  at  my  command, 
making  all  the  noise  I  could.  Finally,  to  put  this  courage  to  its 
fullest  test,  I  have  walked  up  to  within  twenty  feet  of  an  old 
veteran,  toward  the  extreme  end  of  Tolstoi,  who  had  only  four  cows 
in  charge,  and  commenced  with  my  double-barrelled  fowling-piece 
to  pepper  him  all  over  with  fine  mustard-seed  shot,  being  kind 
enough,  in  spite  of  my  zeal,  not  to  put  out  his  eyes.  His  bearing, 
in  spite  of  the  noise,  smell  of  powder,  and  painful  irritation  which 
the  fine  shot  must  have  produced,  did  not  change  in  the  least  from 
the  usual  attitude  of  determined,  plucky  defence  (which  nearly  all 
of  the  bulls  assume)  when  he  was  attacked  with  showers  of  stones  and 
noise.  He  would  dart  out  right  and  left  with  his  long  neck  and 
catch  the  timid  cows  that  furtively  attempted  to  run  after  each  re- 
port of  my  gun,  fling  and  drag  them  back  to  their  places  under  his 
head  ;  and  then,  stretching  up  to  his  full  height,  look  me  directly 
and  defiantly  in  the  face,  roaring  and  chuckling  most  vehemently. 
The  cows,  however,  soon  got  away  from  him :  they  could  not 
endure  my  racket,  in  spite  of  their  dread  of  him.  But  he  still 
stood  his  ground,  making  little  charges  on  me  of  ten  or  fifteen 
feet  in  a  succession  of  gallops  or  lunges,  spitting  furiously,  and 
then  comically  retreating,  with  an  indescribable  leer  and  swagger, 
to  the  old  position,  back  of  which  he  would  not  go,  fully  resolved  to 
hold  his  own  or  die  in  the  attempt. 

This  courage  is  all  the  more  noteworthy  from  the  fact  that,  in 
regard  to  man,  it  is  invariably  of  a  defensive  character.  The  seal  is 
always  on  the  defensive  ;  he  never  retreats,  and  he  will  not  assail. 
If  he  makes  you  return  when  you  attack  him  he  never  follows  you 
much  farther  than  the  boundary  of  his  station,  and  then  no  aggra- 
vation will  compel  him  to  take  the  offensive,  so  far  as  I  have  been 
able  to  observe.  I  was  very  much  impressed  by  this  trait. 

It  is  quite  beyond  my  power — indeed,  entirely  out  of  the  ques- 


280  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

tion — to  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  thousand  and  one  positions  in  which 
seals  compose  themselves  and  rest  when  on  land.  They  may  be  said 
to  assume  every  possible  attitude  which  a  flexible  body  can  be  put 
into,  no  matter  how  characteristic  or  seemingly  forced  or  con- 
strained. Their  joints  seem  to  be  double-hinged — in  fact,  fitted  with 
ball  and  socket  union  of  the  bones.  One  favorite  position,  especially 
with  the  females,  is  to  perch  upon  a  point  or  edge-top  of  some 
rock,  and  throw  their  heads  back  upon  their  shoulders,  with  the 
nose  held  directly  up  and  aloft ;  and  then,  closing  their  eyes,  take 
short  naps  without  changing  their  attitude,  now  and  then  softly 
lifting  one  or  the  other  of  their  long,  slender  hind  flippers,  which 
they  slowly  wave  with  that  peculiar  fanning  motion  to  which  I  have 
alluded  heretofore.  Another  attitude,  and  one  of  the  most  com- 
mon, is  to  curl  themselves  up  just  as  a  dog  does  on  a  hearth-rug, 
bringing  the  tail  and  nose  close  together.  They  also  stretch  out, 
laying  the  head  close  to  the  body,  and  sleep  an  hour  or  two  without 
rising,  holding  one  of  the  hind  flippers  up  all  the  time,  now  and 
then  gently  moving  it,  the  eyes  being  tightly  closed. 

I  ought,  perhaps,  to  define  the  anomalous  tail  of  the  fur-seal 
here.  It  is  just  about  as  important  as  the  caudal  appendage  to  a 
bear  ;  even  less  significant.  It  is  the  very  emphasis  of  abbreviation. 
In  the  old  males  it  is  positively  only  four  or  five  inches  in  length, 
while  among  the  females  only  two  and  a  half  to  three  inches, 
wholly  inconspicuous,  and  not  even  recognized  by  the  casual 
observer  :  they  never  wag  or  move  it  at  all. 

I  come  now  to  speak  of  another  feature  which  interested  me 
nearly,  if  not  quite,  as  much  as  any  other  characteristic  of  this 
creature,  and  that  is  their  fashion  of  slumber.  The  sleep  of  the 
fur-seal,  seen  on  land,  from  the  old  male  down  to  the  youngest,  is 
always  accompanied  by  an  involuntary,  nervous,  muscular  twitching 
and  slight  shifting  of  the  flippers,  together  with  ever  and  anon 
quivering  and  uneasy  rollings  of  the  body,  accompanied  by  a  quick 
folding  anew  of  the  fore  flippers ;  all  of  which  may  be  signs,  as  it 
were,  in  fact,  of  their  simply  having  nightmares,  or  of  sporting,  in 
a  visionary  way,  far  off  in  some  dreamland  sea.  But,  it  may  be 
that  as  an  old  nurse  said  in  reference  to  the  smiles  on  a  sleeping 
child's  face,  they  are  disturbed  by  their  intestinal  parasites.  I  have 
studied  hundreds  of  such  somnolent  examples.  Stealing  softly  up 
so  closely  that  I  could  lay  my  hand  upon  them  from  the  point 
where  I  was  sitting,  did  I  wish  to,  and  watching  the  sleeping  seals, 


AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS.  281 

I  have  always  found  their  sleep  to  be  of  this  nervous  description. 
The  respiration  is  short  and  rapid,  but  with  no  breathing  (unless 
the  ear  is  brought  very  close).  The  quivering,  heaving  of  the 
flanks  only  indicates  the  action  of  the  lungs.  I  have  frequently 
thought  that  I  had  succeeded  in  finding  a  snoring  seal,  especially 
among  the  pups  ;  but  a  close  examination  always  gave  some  abnor- 
mal reason  for  it — generally  a  slight  distemper  ;  never  anything 
more  severe,  however,  than  some  trifle  by  which  the  nostrils  were 
stopped  to  a  greater  or  less  degree. 

The  cows  on  the  rookeries  sleep  a  great  deal,  but  the  bulls 
have  the  veriest  cat-naps  that  can  be  imagined.  I  never  could  time 
the  slumber  of  any  old  male  on  the  breeding  grounds, which  lasted, 
without  interruption,  longer  than  five  minutes,  day  or  night.  While 
away  from  these  places,  however,  I  have  known  them  to  lie  sleeping 
in  the  manner  I  have  described,  broken  by  such  fitful,  nervous, 
dreamy  starts,  yet  without  opening  the  eyes,  for  an  hour  or  so  at  a 
time. 

With  an  exception  of  the  pups,  the  fur-seal  seems  to  have  very 
little  rest,  awake  or  sleeping.  Perpetual  motion  is  well-nigh  in- 
carnate with  its  being.  I  naturally  enough,  when  beginning  my 
investigation  of  these  seal-rookeries,  expected  to  find  the  animals 
subdued  at  night,  or  early  morning,  on  those  breeding  grounds  ;  but 
a  few  consecutive  nocturnal  watches  satisfied  me  that  the  family  or- 
ganization and  noise  was  as  active  at  one  time  as  at  another, 
throughout  the  whole  twenty-four  hours.  If,  however,  the  day 
preceding  had  chanced  to  be  abnormally  warm,  I  never  failed  then 
to  find  the  rookeries  much  more  noisy  and  active  during  the  night 
than  they  were  by  daylight.  The  seals,  as  a  rule,  come  and  go  to 
and  from  the  sea,  fight,  roar,  and  vocalize  as  much  during  mid- 
night moments  as  they  do  at  noonday  times.  An  aged  native  en- 
deavored to  satisfy  me  that  the  "  seecatchie  "  could  see  much  better 
by  twilight  and  night  than  by  daylight  I  am  not  prepared  to 
prove  to  the  contrary,  but  I  think  that  the  fact  of  his  not  being  able 
to  see  so  well  himself  at  that  hour  of  darkness  was  a  true  cause 
of  most  of  his  belief  in  the  improved  nocturnal  vision  of  the  seals.* 

*  This  old  Aleut,  Philip  Vollkov,  passed  to  his  final  rest—"  un  konchiel- 
sah"— in  the  winter  of  1878-79.  He  was  one  of  the  real  characters  of 
St.  Paul.  He  was  esteemed  by  the  whites  on  account  of  his  relative  intelli- 
gence, and  beloved  by  the  natives,  who  called  him  their  "  wise  man,'  and 
who  exulted  in  his  piety.  Philip,  like  the  other  people  there  of  his  kind, 


282  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

As  I  have  said  before,  the  females,  soon  after  landing,  are  de« 
livered  of  their  young.  Immediately  after  the  birth  of  the  pup 
(twins  are  rare,  if  ever)  the  little  creature  finds  its  voice — a  weak, 
husky  blaat — and  begins  to  paddle  about  with  its  eyes  wide  open 
from  the  start,  in  a  confused  sort  of  way  for  a  few  minutes,  until 
the  mother  turns  round  to  notice  her  offspring  and  give  it  atten- 
tion, and  still  later,  to  suckle  it  ;  and  for  this  purpose  she  is  sup- 
plied with  four  small,  brown  nipples,  almost  wholly  concealed  in 
the  fur,  and  which  are  placed  about  eight  inches  apart,  lengthwise 
with  the  body,  on  the  abdomen,  between  the  fore  and  hind  flippers, 
with  about  four  inches  of  space  between  them  transversely.  These 
nipples  are  seldom  visible,  and  then  faintly  seen  through  the  hair 
and  fur.  The  milk  is  abundant,  rich,  and  creamy.  The  pups  nurse 
very  heartily,  almost  gorging  themselves  ;  so  much  so,  that  they 
often  have  to  yield  up  the  excess  of  what  they  have  taken  down, 
mewling  and  puking  in  a  most  orthodox  manner. 

The  pup  at  birth,  and  for  the  next  three  months,  is  of  a  jet- 
black  color,  hair  and  flippers,  save  a  tiny  white  patch  just  back  of 
each  forearm.  It  weighs  from  three  to  four  pounds,  and  is  twelve 
to  fourteen  inches  long.  It  does  not  seem  to  nurse  more  than  once 
every  two  or  three  days  ;  but  in  this  I  am  very  likely  mistaken,  for 
it  may  have  received  attention  from  its  mother  in  the  night,  or 
other  times  in  the  day  when  I  was  unable  to  keep  up  my  watch 
over  the  individual  which  I  had  marked  for  this  supervision. 

The  apathy  with  which  the  young  are  treated  by  the  old  on  the 
breeding  grounds,  especially  by  the  mothers,  was  very  strange  to 
me,  and  I  was  considerably  surprised  at  it.  I  have  never  seen  a  seal- 
mother  caress  or  fondle  her  offspring  ;  and  should  it  stray  to  a  short 
distance  from  the  harem,  I  could  step  to  and  pick  it  up,  and  even 
kill  it  before  the  mother's  eye,  without  causing  her  the  slightest 
concern,  as  far  as  all  outward  signs  and  manifestations  should  indi- 
cate. The  same  indifference  is  also  exhibited  by  the  male  to  all 
that  may  take  place  of  this  character  outside  of  the  boundary  of  his 
seraglio  ;  but  the  moment  the  pups  are  inside  the  limits  of  his 
harem-ground  he  is  a  jealous  and  a  fearless  protector,  vigilant  and 
determined.  But  if  the  little  animals  are  careless  enough  to  pass 


was  not  much  comfort  to  me  when  I  asked  questions  as  to  the  seals.  He 
usually  answered  important  inquiries  by  crossing  himself  and  replying,  "  God 
knows."  There  was  no  appeal  from  this. 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  283 

beyond  this  boundary,  then  I  can  go  up  to  them  and  carry  them  off 
before  the  eye  of  the  old  Turk  without  receiving  from  him  the 
slightest  attention  in  their  behalf — a  curious  guardian,  forsooth ! 

It  is  surprising  to  me  how  few  of  these  young  pups  get  crushed 
to  death  while  the  ponderous  bulls  are  floundering  over  them,  en- 
gaged in  fighting  and  quarrelling  among  themselves.  I  have  seen 
two  bulls  dash  at  each  other  with  all  the  energy  of  furious  rage, 
meeting  right  in  the  midst  of  a  small  "  pod  "  of  forty  or  fifty  pups, 
tramp  over  them  with  all  their  crushing  weight,  and  bowling  them 
out  right  and  left  in  every  direction  by  the  impetus  of  their  move- 
ments, without  injuring  a  single  one,  as  far  as  I  could  see.  Still, 
when  we  come  to  consider  the  fact  that,  despite  the  great  weight  of 
the  old  males,  their  broad,  flat  flippers  and  yielding  bodies  may 
press  down  heavily  on  these  little  fellows  without  actually  breaking 
bones  or  mashing  them  out  of  shape,  it  does  seem  questionable 
whether  more  than  one  per  cent,  of  all  the  pups  born  each  season 
on  these  great  rookeries  of  the  Pribylov  Islands  are  destroyed  in 
this  manner  on  the  breeding  grounds.* 

The  vitality  of  a  fur-seal  is  simply  astonishing.  Its  physical 
organization  passes  beyond  the  fabled  nine  lives  of  the  cat.  As  a 
slight  illustration  of  its  tenure  of  life,  I  will  mention  the  fact  that 
one  morning  Philip  came  to  me  with  a  pup  in  his  arms,  which 
had  just  been  born  and  was  still  womb-moist,  saying  that  the 
mother  had  been  killed  at  Tolstoi  by  accident,  and  he  supposed 
that  I  would  like  to  have  a  "  choochil."  I  took  it  up  into  my  labo- 
ratory, and,  finding  that  it  could  walk  about  and  make  a  great  noise, 
I  attempted  to  feed  it,  with  the  idea  of  having  a  comfortable  sub- 
ject to  my  pencil  for  life-study  of  the  young  in  varied  attitudes 
of  sleep  and  motion.  It  refused  everything  that  I  could  summon 
to  its  attention  as  food,  and,  alternately  sleeping  and  walking  in  its 
clumsy  fashion  about  the  floor ;  it  actually  lived  nine  days,  spending 
the  half  of  *  every  one  in  floundering  over  the  floor,  accompanying 
all  movements  with  a  persistent,  hoarse,  blaating  cry,  and  I  do  not 
believe  it  ever  had  a  single  drop  of  its  mother's  milk. 

In  a  pup  the  head  is  the  only  disproportionate  feature  at  birth 


*  The  only  danger  which  these  little  fellows  are  subject  to  up  here  is  being 
caught  by  an  October  gale  down  at  the  surf-margin,  when  they  have  not 
fairly  learned  to  swim.  Large  numbers  have  been  destroyed  by  sudden  "  nips  " 
of  this  character. 


284  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

when  it  is  compared  with  an  adult  form,  the  neck  being  also  rela- 
tively  shorter  and  thicker.  The  eye  is  large,  round,  and  full ;  but, 
almost  a  "navy  blue  "  at  times,  it  soon  changes  into  the  blue-black 
of  adolescence. 

The  females  appear  to  go  to  and  come  from  the  water  feeding 
and  bathing  quite  frequnetly  after  bearing  their  young  and  an  im- 
mediate subsequent  coitus  with  the  male :  they  usually  return  to  the 
spot  or  its  immediate  neighborhood,  where  they  leave  their  pups, 
crying  out  for  them  and  recognizing  the  individual  replies ;  though 
ten  thousand  around,  all  together,  should  blaat  at  once,  they 
quickly  single  out  their  own  and  nurse  them.  It  would  certainly 
be  a  very  unfortunate  matter  if  the  mothers  could  not  identify  their 
young  by  sound,  since  these  pups  get  together  like  a  great  swarm 
of  bees,  and  spread  out  upon  the  ground  in  what  the  sealers  call 
"  pods,"  or  clustered  groups,  while  they  are  young  and  not  very 
large  ;  thus,  from  the  middle  or  end  of  September  until  they  leave 
the  islands  for  the  dangers  of  the  great  Pacific  in  the  winter,  along 
by  the  first  of  November,  they  gather  in  this  manner,  sleeping  and 
frolicking  by  tens  of  thousands,  bunched  together  at  various  places 
all  over  the  islands  contiguous  to  the  breeding  grounds,  and  right 
on  them.  A  mother  comes  up  from  the  sea,  whither  she  has  been 
to  wash,  and  perhaps  to  feed,  for  the  last  day  or  two,  feeling  her 
way  along  to  about  where  she  thinks  her  pup  should  be — at  least, 
where  she  left  it  last ;  but  perhaps  she  misses  it,  and  finds  instead 
a  swarm  of  pups  in  which  it  has  been  incorporated,  owing  to  its 
great  fondness  for  society.  The  mother,  without  first  entering  into 
a  crowd  of  thousands,  calls  just  as  a  sheep  does  for  a  lamb, 
and  out  of  all  the  din  she — if  not  at  first,  at  the  end  of  a  few  trials 
— recognizes  the  voice  of  her  offspring,  and  then  advances,  striking 
out  right  and  left  toward  the  position  from  which  it  replies  ;  but  if 
the  pup  happens  at  this  time  to  be  asleep,  it  gives,  of  course,  no 
response,  even  though  it  were  close  by.  In  the  event  of  such  silence 
the  cow,  after  calling  for  a  time  without  being  answered,  curls  her- 
self up  and  takes  a  nap  or  lazily  basks,  to  be  usually  more  success- 
ful, or  wholly  so,  when  she  calls  again. 

The  pups  themselves  do  not  know  their  own  mothers,  a  fact 
which  I  ascertained  by  careful  observation  ;  but  they  are  so  consti- 
tuted that  they  incessantly  cry  out  at  short  intervals  during  the 
whole  time  they  are  awake,  and  in  this  way  the  mother  can  pick  out 
from  the  monotonous  blaating  of  thousands  of  pups  her  own,  and 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  285 

she  will  not  permit  any  other  one  to  suckle  her.  But  the  "  kotickie  " 
themselves  attempt  to  nose  around  every  seal-mother  that  comes  in 
contact  with  them.  I  have  repeatedly  watched  young  pups  as  they 
made  advances  to  nurse  from  another  pup's  mother,  the  result  in- 
variably being  that,  while  the  "  matkah  "  would  permit  her  own  off- 
spring to  suckle  freely,  yet  when  these  little  strangers  touched  her 
nipples  she  would  either  move  abruptly  away  or  else  turn  quickly 
down  upon  her  stomach,  so  that  the  maternal  fountains  were  inac- 
cessible to  alien  and  hungry  "kotickie."  I  have  witnessed  so 
many  examples  of  the  females  turning  pups  away  to  suckle  only 
some  particular  other  one,  that  I  feel  sure  I  am  entirely  right  in  say- 
ing that  the  seal-mothers  know  their  own  young,  and  that  they  will 
not  permit  any  others  except  them  to  nurse.  I  believe  that  this 
maternal  recognition  is  due  chiefly  to  the  mother's  scent  and  hear- 
ing. 

Between  the  end  of  July  and  August  5th  or  8th  of  every  year 
the  rookeries  are  completely  changed  in  appearance.  The  system- 
atic and  regular  disposition  of  the  families  or  harems  over  the  whole 
extent  of  breeding-ground  has  disappeared.  All  that  clock-work 
order  which  has  heretofore  existed  seems  to  be  broken  up.  The 
breeding  season  closed,  those  bulls  which  have  held  their  positions 
since  May  1st  leave,  most  of  them  thin  in  flesh  and  weak,  and  of 
their  number  a  very  large  proportion  do  not  come  out  again  on 
land  during  the  season  ;  but  such  as  are  seen  at  the  end  of  Octo- 
ber and  November  are  in  good  shape.  They  have  a  new  coat  of 
rich,  dark,  gray-brown  hair  and  fur,  with  gray  or  grayish-ochre 
"  wigs  "  of  longer  hair  over  the  shoulders,  forming  a  fresh,  strong 
contrast  to  the  dull,  rusty,  brown  and  umber  dress  in  which  they 
appeared  to  us  during  the  summer,  and  which  they  had  begun  to 
shed  about  August  1st,  in  common  with  the  females  and  the  "hol- 
luschickie."  After  these  males  leave  at  the  end  of  their  season's 
work,  and  of  the  rutting  for  the  year,  those  of  them  that  happen  to 
return  to  land  in  any  event  do  not  come  back  until  the  end  of 
September  and  do  not  haul  up  on  the  rookery  grounds  again.  As 
a  rule,  they  prefer  to  herd  altogether,  like  younger  males,  upon 
the  sand-beaches  and  rocky  points  close  to  the  water. 

The  cows  and  pups,  together  with  those  bulls  which  we  have 
noticed  in  waiting  at  the  rear  of  the  rookeries,  and  which  have  been 
in  retirement  throughout  the  whole  of  the  breeding  season,  now 
take  possession,  in  a  very  disorderly  manner,  of  these  rookeries  ; 


286  OUK   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

also,  a  large  number  of  young,  three,  four,  and  five  year  old  males 
come,  which  have  been  prevented  by  the  menacing  threats  of 
stronger  bulls  from  an  earlier  landing  among  the  females  during 
the  breeding  season. 

Before  the  middle  of  August  three-fourths,  at  least,  of  the  cows 
at  this  date  are  off  in  the  water,  only  coming  ashore  at  irregular 
intervals  to  nurse  and  look  after  their  pups  a  short  time.  They 
presented  to  my  eye,  from  the  summits  of  the  bluffs  round  about, 
a  picture  more  suggestive  of  entire  comfort  and  enjoyment  than  any- 
thing I  have  ever  seen  presented  by  animal  life.  Here,  just  out 
and  beyond  the  breaking  of  the  rollers,  they  idly  lie  on  the  rocks 
or  sand-beaches,  ever  and  anon  turning  over  and  over,  scratching 
their  backs  and  sides  with  their  fore  and  hind  flippers.  The  seals 
on  the  breeding  ground  appear  to  get  very  lousy.* 

Frequent  winds  and  showers  will  drive  and  spatter  sand  into 
their  fur  and  eyes,  often  making  the  latter  quite  sore.  This  occurs 
when  they  are  obliged  to  leave  the  rocky  rookeries  and  follow  their 
pups  out  over  the  sand-ridges  and  flats,  to'  which  they  always  have 
a  natural  aversion.  On  the  hauling-grounds  they  pack  the  soil 
under  their  feet  so  hard  and  tightly  in  many  places  that  it  holds 
water  in  shallow  surface-depressions,  just  like  so  many  rock-basins. 
Out  of  and  into  these  puddles  the  pups  and  the  females  flounder 

*  The  fur-seal  spends  a  great  deal  of  time,  both,  at  sea  and  on  land,  in 
scratching  its  hide  ;  for  it  is  annoyed  by  a  species  of  louse,  a  pediculus,  to  just 
about  the  same  degree  and  in  the  same  manner  that  our  dogs  are  by  fleas.  To 
scratch,  it  sits  upon  its  haunches,  and  scrapes  away  with  the  toe-nails  of  first 
one  and  then  the  other  of  its  hind  nippers,  by  which  action  it  reaches  readily 
all  portions  of  its  head,  neck,  chest  and  shoulders,  and  with  either  one  or  the 
other  of  its  fore  flippers  it  rubs  down  its  spinal  region  back  of  the  shoulders  to 
the  tail.  By  that  division  of  labor  with  its  feet  it  can  promptly  reduce,  with 
every  sign  of  comfort,  any  lousy  irritation  wheresoever  on  its  body.  This 
pediculus  peculiar  to  the  fur-seal  attaches  itself  almost  exclusively  to  the  pec- 
toral regions  ;  a  few  also  are  generally  found  at  the  bases  of  the  auricular 
pavilions. 

When  the  fur-seal  is  engaged  in  this  exercise  it  cocks  its  head  and  wears 
exactly  the  same  expression  that  our  common  house-dog  does  while  subjugat- 
ing and  eradicating  fleas  ;  the  eyes  are  partly  or  wholly  closed  ;  the  tongue 
lolls  out ;  and  the  whole  demeanor  is  one  of  quiet  but  intense  satisfaction. 

The  fur-seal  appears  also  to  scratch  itself  in  the  water  with  the  same  facil- 
ity and  unction  so  marked  on  land,  only  it  varies  the  action  by  using  its  fore- 
hands principally  in  its  pelagic  exercise,  while  its  hind-feet  do  most  of  the 
terrestrial  scraping. 


AMPHIBIAN'    MILLIONS.  287 

and  patter  incessantly,  until  evaporation  slowly  abates  the  nuisance 
for  a  time  only,  inasmuch  as  the  next  day,  perhaps,  brings  more  rain 
and  the  dirty  pools  are  replenished. 

The  pups  sometimes  get  so  thoroughly  plastered  in  these  mud- 
dy, slimy  puddles,  that  the  hair  falls  off  in  patches,  giving  them,  at 
first  sight,  the  appearance  of  being  troubled  with  scrofula  or  some 
other  plague  :  from  my  investigations  directed  to  this  point,  I  be- 
came satisfied  that  they  were  not  permanently  injured,  though  evi- 
dently very  much  annoyed.  With  reference  to  this  suggestion  as 
to  sickness  or  distemper  among  these  seals,  I  gave  the  subject  direct 
and  continued  attention,  and  in  no  one  of  the  rookeries  could  I 
discover  a  single  seal,  no  matter  how  old  or  young,  which  appeared 
to  be  suffering  in  the  least  from  any  physical  disorder  other  than 
that  which  they  themselves  had  inflicted,  one  upon  the  other,  by 
fighting.  The  third  season,  passing  directly  under  my  observation, 
failed  to  reward  my  search  with  any  manifestation  of  disease  among 
the  seals  which  congregate  in  such  mighty  numbers  on  those  rooker- 
ies of  St.  Paul  and  St.  George.  That  remarkable  freedom  from  all 
such  complaints  enjoyed  by  these  animals  is  noteworthy,  and  a 
most  trenchant  and  penetrating  cross-questioning  of  the  natives 
also  failed  to  give  me  any  history  or  evidence  of  an  epidemic  in  the 
past. 

The  observer  will,  however,  notice  every  summer,  gathered  in 
melancholy  squads  of  a  dozen  to  one  hundred  or  so  (scattered  along 
the  coast  where  the  healthy  seals  never  go),  those  sick  and  disabled 
bulls  which  have,  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  season,  been  either  in- 
ternally injured  or  dreadfully  scarred  by  the  teeth  of  their  oppo- 
nents in  fighting.  Sand  is  blown  by  strong  wind  into  their  fresh 
wounds,  causing  inflammation  and  sloughing  which  very  often 
finishes  the  life  of  a  victim.  The  sailors  term  these  invalid  gath- 
erings "hospitals,"  a  phrase  which,  like  the  most  of  their  homely 
expressions,  is  quite  appropriate. 

Early  in  August,  usually  by  the  8th  or  10th,  I  noticed  one  of 
the  remarkable  movements  of  the  season.  I  refer  to  the  pup's  first 
essay  in  swimming.  Is  it  not  odd — paradoxical — that  the  young 
seal,  from  the  moment  of  his  birth  until  he  is  a  month  or  six 
weeks  old,  is  utterly  unable  to  swim  ?  If  he  is  seized  by  the 
nape  of  the  neck  and  pitched  out  a  rod  into  the  water  from 
shore,  his  bullet-like  head  will  drop  instantly  below  the  surface, 
and  his  attenuated  posterior  extremities  flap  impotently  on  it 


288  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

Suffocation  is  the  question  of  only  a  few  minutes,  the  stupid  little 
creature  not  knowing  how  to  raise  his  immersed  head  and  gain  the 
air  again.  After  they  have  attained  the  age  indicated  above,  their  in- 
stinct drives  them  down  to  the  margin  of  the  surf,  where  an  alter- 
nate ebbing  and  flowing  of  its  wash,  covers  and  uncovers  the  rocky 
or  sandy  beaches.  They  first  smell  and  then  touch  the  moist  pools, 
and  flounder  in  the  upper  wash  of  the  surf,  which  leaves  them  as 
suddenly  high  and  dry  as  it  immersed  them  at  first.  After  this 
beginning  they  make  slow  and  clumsy  progress  in  learning  the 
knack  of  swimming.  For  a  week  or  two,  when  over-head  in  depth, 
they  continue  to  flounder  about  in  the  most  awkward  manner, 
thrashing  the  water  as  little  dogs  do  with  their  fore  feet,  making 
no  attempt  whatever  to  use  the  hinder  ones.  Look  at  that  pup 
now,  launched  out  for  the  first  time  beyond  his  depth  ;  see  how  he 
struggles — his  mouth  wide  open,  and  his  eyes  fairly  popping.  He 
turns  instantly  to  the  beach,  ere  he  has  fairly  struck  out  from  the 
point  whence  he  launched  in,  and,  as  the  receding  swell  which  at 
first  earned  him  off  his  feet  and  out,  now  returning,  leaves  him 
high  and  dry,  for  a  few  minutes  he  seems  so  weary  that  he  weakly 
crawls  up,  out  beyond  its  swift  returning  wash,  and  coils  himself 
immediately  to  take  a  recuperative  nap.  He  sleeps  a  few  min- 
utes, perhaps  half  an  hour,  then  awakes  as  bright  as  a  dollar,  ap- 
parently rested,  and  at  his  swimming  lesson  he  goes  again.  By 
repeated  and  persistent  attempts,  this  young  seal  gradually  becomes 
familiar  with  the  water  and  acquainted  with  his  own  power  over 
that  element,  which  is  to  be  his  real  home  and  his  whole  support. 
Once  boldly  swimming,  the  pup  fairly  revels  in  a  new  happiness. 
He  and  his  brethren  have  now  begun  to  haul  and  swarm  along  the 
entire  length  of  St.  Paul  coast,  from  Northeast  Point  down  and 
around  to  Zapadnie,  lining  the  alternating  sand-beaches  and  rocky 
shingle  with  their  chunky,  black  forms.  How  they  do  delight  in  it ! 
They  play  with  a  zest,  and  chatter  like  our  own  children  in  the 
kindergartens — swimming  in  endless  evolutions,  twisting,  turning, 
or  diving — and  when  exhausted,  drawing  their  plump,  round  bodies 
up  again  on  the  beach.  Shaking  themselves  dry  as  young  dogs 
would  do,  they  now  either  go  to  sleep  on  the  spot  or  have  a  lazy 
terrestrial  frolic  among  themselves. 

Why  an  erroneous  impression  ever  got  into  the  mind  of  any 
man  as  to  this  matter  of  a  pup's  learning  to  swim,  I  confess  that  I 
am  wholly  unable  to  imagine.  I  have  not  seen  any  "  driving  "  of 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  289 

the  young  pups  into  the  water  by  the  old  ones,  in  order  to  teach 
them  this  process,  as  certain  authors  have  positively  affirmed. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  supervision  by  the  mother  or  father  of 
the  pup,  from  the  first  moment  of  his  birth,  in  this  respect,  until 
he  leaves  for  the  North  Pacific,  full-fledged  with  amphibious  power. 
At  the  close  of  the  breeding  season,  every  year,  the  pups  are 
restlessly  and  constantly  shifting  back  and  forth  over  the  rookery 
ground  of  their  birth,  in  large  squads,  sometimes  numbering  thou- 
sands upon  thousands.  In  the  course  of  this  change  of  position 
they  all  sooner  or  later  come  in  contact  with  the  sea  ;  they  then 
blunder  into  the  water  for  the  first  time,  in  a  most  awkward,  un- 
gainly manner,  and  get  out  as  quick  as  they  can  ;  but  so  far  from 
showing  any  fear  or  dislike  of  this,  their  most  natural  element, 
as  soon  as  they  rest  from  their  exertion  they  are  immediately  ready 
for  a  new  trial,  and  keep  at  it,  provided  the  sea  is  not  too  stormy  or 
rough.  During  all  this  period  of  self-tuition  they  seem  thoroughly 
to  enjoy  the  exercise,  in  spite  of  their  repeated  and  inevitable  dis- 
comfitures at  the  beginning. 

That  "  podding  "  of  these  young  pups  in  the  rear  of  the  great 
rookeries  of  St.  Paul,  is  one  of  the  most  striking  and  interest- 
ing phases  of  this  remarkable  exhibition  of  highly-organized  life. 
When  they  first  bunch  together  they  are  all  black,  for  they  have 
not  begun  to  shed  the  natal  coat ;  they  shine  with  an  unctuous, 
greasy  reflection,  and  grouped  in  small  armies  or  great  regiments 
on  the  sand-dune  tracts  at  Northeast  Point,  they  present  a  most  ex- 
traordinary and  fascinating  sight.  Although  the  appearance  of  the 
''holluschickie"at  English  Bay  fairly  overwhelms  the  observer  with 
an  impression  of  its  countless  multitudes,  yet  I  am  free  to  declare 
that  at  no  one  point  in  this  evolution  of  the  seal-life,  during  its  re- 
productive season,  have  I  been  so  deeply  impressed  by  a  sense  of 
overwhelming  enumeration,  as  I  have  when,  standing  on  the  summit 
of  Cross  Hill,  I  looked  down  to  the  southward  and  westward  over 
a  reach  of  six  miles  of  alternate  grass  and  sand-dune  stretches,  mir- 
rored upon  which  were  hundreds  of  thousands  of  these  little  black 
pups,  spread  in  sleep  and  sport  within  this  restricted  field  of  vision. 
They  appeared  as  countless  as  the  grains  of  that  sand  upon  which 
they  rested  ! 

By  September  15th,  all  the  pups  born  during  the  year  have 
become  familiar  with  the  water ;  they  have  all  learned  to  swim, 
and  are  now  nearly  all  down  by  the  water's  edge,  skirting  in 
19 


290  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

large  masses  the  rocks  and  beaches  hitherto  unoccupied  by  seals  of 
any  class  this  year.  Now  they  are  about  five  or  six  times  their 
original  weight,  or,  in  other  words,  they  are  thirty  to  forty  pounds 
avoirdupois,  as  plump  and  fat  as  butter-balls,  and  they  begin  to 
take  on  their  second  coat,  shedding  their  black  pup-hair  completely. 
This  second  coat  does  not  vary  in  color,  at  this  age,  between  the 
sexes.  They  effect  such  transformation  in  dress  very  slowly,  and 
cannot,  as  a  rule,  be  said  to  have  ceased  their  moulting  until  the 
middle  or  20th  of  October. 

That  second  coat,  or  sea-going  jacket,  of  the  pup,  is  a  uniform, 
dense,  light  gray  over-hair,  with  an  under-fur  which  is  slightly  gray- 
ish in  some,  but  is,  in  most  cases,  of  a  soft  light  brown  hue.  The  over- 
hair  is  fine,  close  and  elastic,  from  two-thirds  of  an  inch  to  an 
inch  in  length,  while  the  fur  is  not  quite  half  an  inch  long.  Thus 
the  coarser  hair  shingles  over  and  conceals  the  soft  under-wool 
completely,  giving  the  color  by  which,  after  the  second  year,  the 
sex  of  the  animal  is  recognized.  A  pronounced  difference  between 
the  sexes  is  not  effected,  however,  by  color  alone  until  the  third 
year  of  the  animal's  life.  This  over-hair  of  the  pup's  new  jacket 
on  its  back,  neck,  and  head,  is  a  dark  chinchilla-gray,  blending  into 
stone-white,  just  tinged  with  a  grayish  tint  on  the  abdomen  and 
chest.  The  upper  lip,  upon  which  the  whiskers  or  mustaches  take 
root,  is  covered  with  hair  of  a  lighter  gray  than  that  of  the  body. 
This  mustache  consists  of  fifteen  or  twenty  longer  or  shorter 
bristles,  from  half  an  inch  to  three  inches  in  length,  some  brownish, 
horn-colored,  and  others  whitish-gray  and  translucent,  on  each  side 
and  back  and  below  the  nostrils,  leaving  the  muzzle  quite  promi- 
nent and  hairless.  The  nasal  openings  and  their  surroundings  are, 
as  I  have  before  said  when  speaking  of  this  feature,  hairless  and 
similar  to  those  of  a  dog.* 


*  It  has  been  suggested  to  me  that  the  exquisite  power  of  scent  possessed 
by  these  animals  enables  them  to  reach  the  breeding  grounds  at  about  the  place 
where  they  left  them  the  season  previously :  surely  the  nose  of  the  fur-seal  is 
endowed  to  a  superlative  degree  with  those  organs  of  smell,  and  its  range  of 
appreciation  in  this  respect  must  be  very  great. 

I  noticed  in  all  sleeping  and  waking  seals  that  the  nasal  apertures  were 
never  widely  expanded ;  and  that  they  were  at  intervals  rapidly  opened  and 
closed  with  inhalation  and  exhalation  of  each  breath ;  the  nostrils  of  the  fur- 
seal  are,  as  a  rule,  well  opened  when  the  animal  is  out  of  water,  and  remain 
so  while  it  is  on  land. 


AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS.  291 

The  most  attractive  feature  about  the  fur-seal  pup,  and  that  which 
holds  this  place  as  it  grows  on  and  older,  is  the  eye.  That  organ  is 
exceedingly  clear,  dark,  and  liquid,  with  which,  for  beauty  and  ami- 
ability, together  with  real  intelligence  of  expression,  those  of  no 
other  animal  that  I  have  ever  seen,  or  have  ever  read  of,  can  be 
compared ;  indeed,  there  are  few  eyes  in  the  orbits  of  men  and 
women  which  suggest  more  pleasantly  the  ancient  thought  of  their 
being  "windows  to  the  soul."  The  lids  to  that  eye  are  fringed  with 
long,  perfect  lashes,  and  the  slightest  irritation  in  the  way  of  dust 
or  sand,  or  other  foreign  substances,  seems  to  cause  them  exquisite 
annoyance,  accompanied  by  immoderate  weeping.  This  involuntary 
tearfulness  so  moved  Steller  that  he  ascribed  it  to  the  processes  of 
a  mind,  and  declared  that  seal- mothers  actually  "  shed  tears  " ! 

I  do  not  think  a  seal's  range  of  vision  on  land,  or  out  of  the 
water,  is  very  great.  I  have  frequently  experimented  with  adult 
fur-seals,  by  allowing  them  to  catch  sight  of  my  person,  so  as  to 
distinguish  it  as  of  foreign  character,  three  and  four  hundred  paces 
off,  taking  the  precaution  of  standing  quietly  to  the  leeward  when 
the  wind  was  blowing  strong,  and  then  walking  unconcernedly  up 
to  them.  I  have  invariably  noticed  that  they  would  allow  me  to  ap- 
proach quite  close  before  recognizing  my  strangeness  ;  then,  as  it 
occurred  to  them,  they  at  once  made  a  lively  noise,  a  medley  of 
coughing,  spitting,  snorting,  and  blaating,  and  plunged  in  spasmodic 
lopes  and  shambled  to  get  away  from  my  immediate  neighborhood. 
As  to  the  pups,  they  all  stupidly  stare  at  the  form  of  a  human  being 
until  it  is  fairly  on  them,  when  they  also  repeat  in  miniature  these 
vocal  gymnastics  and  physical  efforts  of  the  older  ones,  to  retreat 
or  withdraw  a  few  rods,  sometimes  only  a  few  feet,  from  the  spot 
upon  which  you  have  cornered  them,  after  which  they  instantly  re- 
sume their  previous  occupation  of  either  sleeping  or  playing,  as 
though  nothing  had  happened.  Perhaps  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the 
greatest  activity  displayed  by  any  one  of  the  five  senses  of  the  seal 
is  evidenced  in  its  power  of  scent.  This  faculty  is  all  that  can  be 
desired  in  the  line  of  alertness.  I  never  failed  to  awaken  an  adult 
seal  from  the  soundest  sleep,  when  from  a  half  to  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  distant,  no  matter  how  softly  I  proceeded,  if  I  got  to  the 
windward,  though  they  sometimes  took  alarm  when  I  was  a  mile 
off. 

They  leave  evidences  of  their  being  on  these  great  reproductive 
fields,  chiefly  at  the  rookeries,  in  the  hundreds  of  dead  carcasses 


292  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

which  mark  the  last  of  those  animals  that  had  been  rendered  in- 
firm, sick,  and  killed  by  fighting  among  themselves  in  the  early 
part  of  the  season,  or  of  those  which  have  crawled  far  away  from 
the  scene  of  battle  to  die  from  death-wounds  received  in  bitter 
struggles  for  a  harem.  On  the  rookeries,  wherever  these  lifeless 
bodies  rest,  the  living,  old  and  young,  clamber  and  patter  backward 
and  forward  over  and  on  the  putrid  remains :  thus  such  constant 
stirring  up  of  decayed  matter,  gives  rise  to  an  exceedingly  disagree- 
able and  far-reaching  "  funk."  This  has  been,  by  all  writers  who 
have  dwelt  on  the  subject,  referred  to  as  the  smell  which  those  ani- 
mals emit  for  another  reason — erroneously  called  the  "  rutting 
odor."  If  these  creatures  have  any  odor  peculiar  to  them  when  in 
this  condition,  I  will  frankly  confess  that  I  am  unable  to  distinguish 
it  from  the  fumes  which  are  constantly  being  stirred  up  and  arising 
out  of  those  putrescent  carcasses  so  disturbed,  as  well  as  from 
the  bodies  of  the  few  pups  which  have  been  killed  accidentally  by 
heavy  bulls  fighting  over  them,  charging  back  and  forth  against  one 
another,  so  much  of  the  time. 

They  have,  however,  a  very  characteristic  and  peculiar  smell 
when  they  are  driven  and  get  heated  ;  their  breath-exhalations 
possess  a  disagreeable,  faint,  sickly  odor,  and  when  I  have  walked 
within  its  influence  at  the  rear  of  a  seal-drive,  I  could  almost  fancy, 
as  it  entered  my  nostrils,  that  I  stood  beneath  an  ailantus-tree  in 
full  bloom  ;  but  this  odor  can  by  no  means  be  confounded  with 
what  is  universally  ascribed  to  another  cause.  It  is  also  noteworthy 
that  if  your  finger  is  touched  ever  so  lightly  to  a  little  fur-seal 
blubber,  it  will  smell  very  much  like  that  which  I  have  appreciated 
and  described  as  peculiar  to  their  breath,  which  arises  from  them 
when  they  are  driven,  only  it  is  a  little  stronger.  Both  the  young 
and  old  fur-seals  have  this  same  breath-taint  at  all  seasons  of  the 
year. 

With  the  precision  of  clock-work  and  the  regularity  of  the  pre- 
cession of  the  seasons,  fur-seals  have  adopted  and  enforced  the 
following  method  of  life  on  these  islands  of  Pribylov.  In  this  sys- 
tem millions  of  those  highly  organized  animals  sustain  themselves. 

First. — The  earliest  bulls  land  in  a  negligent,  indolent  way,  at 
the  opening  of  the  season,  soon  after  the  rocks  at  the  water's  edge 
are  free  from  ice,  frozen  snow,  etc.  This  is,  as  a  rule,  about  the 
1st  to  the  5th  of  every  May.  They  land  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  the  season  in  perfect  confidence  and  without  fear  ;  they  are 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  293 

very  fat,  and  will  weigh  on  an  average  five  hundred  pounds  each  ; 
some  stay  at  the  water's  edge,  some  go  to  the  tier  back  of  them 
again,  and  so  forth,  until  the  whole  rookery  is  mapped  out  by  them, 
weeks  in  advance  of  the  arrival  of  the  first  female. 

Second. — That  by  the  10th  or  12th  of  June,  all  the  male  stations 
on  the  rookeries  have  been  mapped  out  and  fought  for,  and  held  in 
waiting  by  the  "see-catchie."  These  males  are,  as  a  rule,  bulls 
rarely  ever  under  six  years  of  age  ;  most  of  them  are  over  that  age, 
being  sometimes  three,  and  occasionally  doubtless  four  or  five 
times  as  old. 

Third. — That  the  cows  make  their  first  appearance,  as  a  class, 
on  or  after  the  12th  or  15th  of  June,  in  very  small  numbers,  but 
rapidly  after  the  23d  and  25th  of  this  month,  every  year,  they  begin 
to  flock  up  in  such  numbers  as  to  fill  the  harems  very  perceptibly, 
and  by  the  8th  or  10th  of  July  they  have  all  come,  as  a  rule — a  few 
stragglers  excepted.  The  average  weight  of  the  females  now  will 
not  be  much  more  than  eighty  to  ninety  pounds  each. 

Fourth. — That  the  breeding  season  is  at  its  height  from  the  10th 
to  the  15th  of  July  every  year,  and  that  it  subsides  entirely  at  the 
end  of  this  month  and  early  in  August ;  also,  that  its  method  and 
system  are  confined  entirely  to  the  land,  never  effected  in  the  sea. 

Fifth. — That  the  females  bear  their  first  young  when  they  are 
three  years  old,  and  that  the  period  of  gestation  is  nearly  twelve 
months,  lacking  a  few  days  only  of  that  lapse  of  time. 

Sixth. — That  the  females  bear  a  single  pup  each,  and  that  this 
is  born  soon  after  landing.  No  exception  to  this  rule  as  ever  been 
witnessed  or  recorded. 

Seventh. — That  the  "  see-catchie  "  which  have  held  the  harems 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  season,  leave  for  the  water  in 
a  desultory  and  straggling  manner  at  its  close,  greatly  emaciated, 
and  do  not  return,  if  they  do  at  all,  until  six  or  seven  weeks  have 
elapsed,  when  the  regular  systematic  distribution  of  the  families 
over  the  rookeries  is  at  an  end  for  this  season.  A  general  medley 
of  young  males  now  are  free  :  they  come  out  of  the  water,  and  wan- 
der over  all  these  rookeries,  together  with  many  old  males,  which 
have  not  been  on  seraglio  duty,  and  great  numbers  of  the  females. 
An  immense  majority  over  all  others  present  are  pups,  since  only 
about  twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the  mother-seals  are  out  of  the  water 
now  at  any  one  time. 

Eighth. — That  the  rookeries  lose  their  compactness  and  definite 


294  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

boundaries  of  true  breeding  limit  and  expansion  by  the  25th  to  the 
28th  of  July  every  year ;  then,  after  this  date,  the  pups  begin  to 
haul  back,  and  to  the  right  and  left,  in  small  squads  at  first,  but  as 
the  season  goes  on,  by  the  18th  of  August,  they  depart  without  ref- 
erence to  their  mothers  ;  and  when  thus  scattered,  the  males,  fe- 
males and  young  swarm  over  more  than  three  and  four  times  the 
area  occupied  by  them  when  breeding  and  born  on  the  rookeries. 
The  system  of  family  arrangement  and  uniform  compactness  of  the 
breeding  classes  breaks  up  at  this  date. 

Ninth. — That  by  the  8th  or  10th  of  August  the  pups  born  near- 
est the  water  first  begin  to  learn  to  swim  ;  and  that  by  the  15th  or 
20th  of  September  they  are  all  familiar,  more  or  less,  with  the  ex- 
ercise. 

Tenth. — That  by  the  middle  of  September  the  rookeries  are  en- 
tirely broken  up ;  confused,  straggling  bands  of  females  are  seen 
among  bachelors,  pups,  and  small  squads  of  old  males,  crossing  and 
recrossing  the  ground  in  an  aimless,  listless  manner.  The  season 
is  now  over. 

Eleventh. — That  many  of  the  seals  do  not  leave  these  grounds  of 
St.  Paul  and  St.  George  before  the  end  of  December,  and  some  re- 
main even  as  late  as  the  12th  of  January  ;  but  that  by  the  end  of 
October  and  the  beginning  of  November  every  year,  all  the  fur- 
seals  of  mature  age — five  and  six  years,  and  upward — have  left  the 
islands.  The  younger  males  go  with  the  others ;  many  of  the  pups 
still  range  about  the  islands,  but  are  not  hauled  to  any  great  extent 
on  the  beaches  or  tke  flats.  They  seem  to  prefer  the  rocky  shore- 
margin,  and  to  lie  as  high  up  as  they  can  get  on  such  bluffy  rook- 
eries as  Tolstoi  and  the  Keef.  By  the  end  of  this  month,  Novem- 
ber, they  are,  as  a  rule,  all  gone. 

I  now  call  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  another  very  remark- 
able feature  in  the  economy  of  the  seal-life  on  these  islands.  The 
great  herds  of  "  holluschickie,"*  numbering  from  one-third  to  one- 
half,  perhaps,  of  the  whole  aggregate  of  near  five  million  seals 
known  to  the  Pribylov  group,  are  never  allowed  by  the  old  "  see- 
catchie "  (which  threaten  frightful  mutilation  or  death)  to  put 
their  flippers  on  or  near  the  rookeries. 

By  reference  to  my  map,  it  will  be  observed  that  I  have  located 


*Tlie  Russian  term  "  holluschickie  "  or  "bachelors"  is  very  appropriate, 
and  is  usually  employed. 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  295 

a  large  extent  of  ground — markedly  so  on  St.  Paul — as  that  occu- 
pied by  the  seals'  "  hauling-ground  " ;  this  area,  in  fact,  represents 
those  portions  of  the  island  upon  which  the  "  holluschickie  "  roam 
in  heavy  squadrons,  wearing  away  and  polishing  the  surface  of 
the  soil,  stripping  every  foot,  which  is  indicated  on  the  chart  as 
such,  of  its  vegetation  and  mosses,  leaving  a  margin  as  sharply 
defined  on  those  bluffy  uplands  and  sandy  flats  as  it  is  on  the  map 
itself. 

The  reason  that  so  much  more  land  is  covered  by  the  "  hollus- 
chickie "  than  by  the  breeding  seals — ten  times  as  much  at  least — 
is  due  to  the  fact  that,  though  not  as  numerous,  perhaps,  as  the 
breeding  seals,  yet  they  are  tied  down  to  nothing,  so  to  speak — are 
wholly  irresponsible,  and  roam  hither  and  thither  as  caprice  and 
the  weather  may  dictate.  Thus  they  wear  off  and  rub  down  a 
much  larger  area  than  the  rookery  seals  occupy ;  wandering  aim- 
lessly, and  going  back,  in  some  instances,  notably  at  English  Bay, 
from  one-half  to  a  whole  mile  inland,  not  travelling  in  desultory 
files  along  winding,  straggling  paths,  but  sweeping  in  solid  pla- 
toons, they  obliterate  every  spear  of  grass  and  rub  down  nearly 
every  hummock  in  their  restless  marching. 

All  the  male  seals,  under  six  years  of  age,  are  compelled  to  herd 
apart  by  themselves  and  away  from  the  breeding  grounds,  in  many 
cases  far  away  ;  the  large  hauling- grounds  at  Southwest  Point  be- 
ing about  two  miles  from  the  nearest  rookery.  This  class  of  seals 
is  termed  "  holluschickie "  or  the  "bachelors"  by  the  people:  a 
most  fitting  and  expressive  appellation. 

The  seals  of  this  great  subdivision  are  those  with  which  the  na- 
tives on  the  Pribylov  group  are  the  most  familiar  :  naturally  and 
especially  so,  since  they  are  the  only  ones,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  thousand  pups,  and  occasionally  an  old  bull  or  two,  taken  late 
in  the  fall  for  food  and  skins,  which  are  driven  up  to  the  killing- 
grounds  at  the  village  for  slaughter.  The  reasons  for  this  exclusive 
attention  to  the  "  bachelors  "  are  most  cogent,  and  will  be  given 
hereafter  when  the  "  business  "  is  discussed. 

Since  the  "  holluschickie  "  are  not  permitted  by  their  own  kind 
to  land  on  the  rookeries  and  stop  there,  they  have  the  choice  of  two 
methods  of  locating,  one  of  which  allows  them  to  rest  in  the  rear  of 
the  rookeries,  and  the  other  on  the  free  beaches.  The  most  notable 
illustration  of  the  former  can  be  witnessed  on  Reef  Point,  where  a 
pathway  is  left  for  their  ingress  and  egress  through  a  rookery — a 


296  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

path  left  by  common  consent,  as  it  were,  between  the  harems.  On 
these  trails  of  passage  they  come  and  go  in  steady  files  all  day  and 
all  night  during  the  season,  unmolested  by  the  jealous  bulls  which 
guard  the  seraglios  on  either  side  as  they  travel — all  peace  and 
comfort  to  the  young  seal  if  he  minds  his  business  and  keeps 
straight  on  up  or  down,  without  stopping  to  nose  about  right  or 
left ;  all  woe  and  destruction  to  him,  however,  if  he  does  not,  for  in 
that  event  he  will  be  literally  torn  in  bloody  gripping,  from  limb  to 
limb,  by  vigilant  "see-catchie." 

Since  the  two  and  three  year  old  "  holluschickie  "  come  up  in 
small  squads  with  the  first  bulls  in  the  spring,  or  a  few  days  later, 
such  common  highways  as  those  between  the  rookery  ground  and 
the  sea  are  travelled  over  before  the  arrival  of  the  cows,  and  get 
well  defined.  A  passage  for  the  "  bachelors,"  which  I  took  much 
pleasure  in  observing  day  after  day  at  Polavina,  another  at  Tolstoi, 
and  two  on  the  Reef,  in  1872,  were  entirely  closed  up  by  the  "  sea- 
catchie  "  and  obliterated  when  I  again  searched  for  them  in  1874. 
Similar  passages  existed,  however,  on  several  of  the  large  rookeries 
of  St.  Paul.  One  of  those  at  Tolstoi  exhibits  this  feature  very 
finely,  for  here  the  hauling-ground  extends  around  from  English 
Bay,  and  lies  up  back  of  the  Tolstoi  rookery,  over  a  flat  and  rolling 
summit,  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  above 
the  sea-level.  The  young  males  and  yearlings  of  both  sexes  come 
through  and  between  the  harems  at  the  height  of  the  breeding 
season  on  two  of  these  narrow  pathways,  and  before  reaching  the 
ground  above,  are  obliged  to  climb  up  an  almost  abrupt  bluff, 
which  they  do  by  following  and  struggling  in  the  water-runs  and 
washes  that  are  worn  into  its  face.  As  this  is  a  large  hauling- 
ground,  on  which,  every  favorable  day  during  the  season,  fifteen 
or  twenty  thousand  commonly  rest,  a  view  of  skilful  seal-climbing 
can  be  witnessed  here  at  any  time  during  that  period  ;  and  the 
sight  of  such  climbing  as  this  of  Tolstoi  is  exceedingly  novel  and 
interesting.  Why,  verily,  they  ascend  over  and  upon  places  where 
a  lively  man  might,  at  first  thought,  say  with  great  positiveness 
that  it  was  utterly  impossible  for  him  to  climb  ! 

The  other  method  of  coming  ashore,  however,  is  the  one  most 
followed  and  favored.  In  this  case  they  avoid  the  rookeries  alto- 
gether, and  repair  to  unoccupied  beaches  between  them ;  and 
then  extend  themselves  out  all  the  way  back  from  the  sea,  as  far 
from  the  water,  in  some  cases,  as  a  quarter  and  even  half  of  a  mile. 


S  i 


11 

QC      .>> 


AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS.  297 

I  stood  on  the  Tolstoi  sand-dunes  one  afternoon,  toward  the  middle 
of  July,  and  had  under  my  eyes,  in  a  straightforward  sweep  from 
my  feet  to  Zapadnie,  a  million  and  a  half  of  seals  spread  out  on 
those  hauling-grounds.  Of  these  I  estimated  that  fully  one-half,  at 
that  time,  were  pups,  yearlings,  and  "  holluschickie."  The  rookeries 
across  the  bay,  though  plainly  in  sight,  were  so  crowded  that  they 
looked  exactly  as  I  have  seen  surfaces  appear  upon  which  bees  had 
swarmed  in  obedience  to  that  din  and  racket  made  by  the  watchful 
apiarian  when  he  desires  to  secure  a  hive  of  restless  honey-makers. 

The  great  majority  of  yearlings  and  "holluschickie"  are  an- 
nually hauled  out,  scattered  thickly  over  the  sand-beach  and  upland 
hauling-grounds  which  lie  between  the  rookeries  on  St.  Paul 
Island.  At  St.  George  there  is  nothing  of  this  extensive  display  to 
be  seen,  for  here  is  only  a  tithe  of  the  seal-life  occupying  St.  Paul, 
and  no  opportunity  whatever  is  afforded  for  an  amphibious  parade. 

Descend  with  me  from  this  sand-dune  elevation  of  Tolstoi,  and 
walk  into  that  drove  of  "  holluschickie  "  below  us.  We  can  do  it. 
You  do  not  notice  much  confusion  or  dismay  as  we  go  in  among 
them.  They  simply  open  out  before  us  and  close  in  behind  our 
tracks,  stirring,  crowding  to  the  right  and  left  as  we  go,  twelve  or 
twenty  feet  away  from  us  on  each  side.  Look  at  this  small  flock  of 
yearlings — some  one,  others  two,  and  even  three  years  old — which 
are  coughing  and  spitting  around  us  now,  staring  up  in  our  faces 
in  amazement  as  we  walk  ahead.  They  struggle  a  few  rods  out  of 
our  reach,  and  then  come  together  again  behind  us,  showing  no 
further  sign  or  notice  of  ourselves.  You  could  not  walk  into  a 
drove  of  hogs  at  Chicago  without  exciting  as  much  confusion  and 
arousing  an  infinitely  more  disagreeable  tumult ;  and  as  for  sheep  on 
the  plains,  they  would  stampede  far  quicker.  Wild  animals,  in- 
deed !  You  can  now  readily  understand  how  easy  it  is  for  two  or 
three  men,  early  in  the  morning,  to  come  where  we  are,  turn  aside 
from  this  vast  herd  in  front  of  and  around  us  two  or  three  thousand 
of  the  best  examples,  and  drive  them  back,  up,  and  over  to  the  vil- 
lage. That  is  the  way  they  get  the  seals.  There  is  no  "hunting," 
no  "  chasing,"  no  "capturing"  of  fur-seals  on  these  islands. 

While  the  young  male  seals  undoubtedly  have  the  power  of 
going  for  lengthy  intervals  without  food,  they,  like  the  female  seals 
on  the  breeding  grounds,  certainly  do  not  maintain  any  long  fasting 
periods  on  land.  Their  coming  and  going  from  the  shore  is  fre- 
quent and  irregular,  largely  influenced  by  the  exact  condition  of 


298  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

the  weather  from  day  to  day.  For  instance,  three  or  four  thick, 
foggy  days  seem  to  call  them  out  from  the  water  by  hundreds  of 
thousands  upon  the  different  hauling-grounds  (which  the  reader 
observes  recorded  on  my  map).  In  some  cases  I  have  seen  them 
lie  there  so  close  together  that  scarcely  a  foot  of  ground,  over  whole 
acres,  is  bare  enough  to  be  seen.  Then  a  clear  and  warmer  day 
follows,  and  this  seal-covered  ground,  before  so  thickly  packed  with 
animal  life,  will  soon  be  almost  deserted — comparatively  so,  at 
least — to  be  filled  up  immediately  as  before,  when  favorable  weather 
shall  again  recur.  They  must  frequently  eat  when  here,  because 
the  first  yearlings  and  "  holluschickie  "  that  appear  in  the  spring 
are  no  fatter,  sleeker,  or  livelier  than  they  are  at  the  close  of  the 
season.  In  other  words,  their  condition,  physically,  seems  to  be 
the  same  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  their  appearance  here 
during  the  summer  and  fall.  It  is  quite  different,  however,  with 
the  "  see-catch."  We  know  how  and  where  it  spends  two  to  three 
months,  because  we  find  it  on  the  ground  at  all  times,  day  or 
night,  during  that  period. 

A  small  flock  of  the  young  seals,  one  to  three  years  old  gener- 
ally, will  often  stray  from  these  hauling-ground  margins  up  and 
beyond  over  the  fresh  mosses  and  grasses,  and> there  sport  and  play 
one  with  another  just  as  little  puppy-dogs  do :  but,  when  weary  of 
this  gambolling,  a  general  disposition  to  sleep  is  suddenly  mani- 
fested, and  they  stretch  themselves  out  and  curl  up  in  all  the  posi- 
tions and  all  the  postures  that  their  flexible  spines  and  ball-and- 
socket  joints  will  permit.  They  seem  to  revel  in  the  unwonted 
vegetation,  and  to  be  delighted  with  their  own  efforts  in  rolling 
down  and  crushing  the  tall  stalks  of  grasses  and  umbelliferous 
plants.  One  will  lie  upon  its  back,  hold  up  its  hind  flippers,  and 
lazily  wave  them  about,  while  it  scratches,  or  rather  rubs,  its  ribs 
with  the  fore-hands  alternately,  the  eyes  being  tightly  closed  dur- 
ing the  whole  performance.  The  sensation  is  evidently  so  luxuri- 
ous that  it  does  not  wish  to  have  any  side-issue  draw  off  its  blissful 
self-attention.  Another,  curled  up  like  a  cat  on  a  rug,  draws  its 
breath,  as  indicated  by  the  heaving  of  its  flanks,  quickly,  but  regu- 
larly, as  though  in  heavy  sleep.  Another  will  lie  flat  upon  its 
stomach,  its  hind  flippers  covered  and  concealed,  while  it  tightly 
folds  its  forefeet  back  against  its  sides,  just  as  a  fish  carries  its 
pectoral  fins,  and  so  on  to  no  end  of  variety,  according  to  the  ground 
and  the  fancy  of  the  animals. 


AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS.  299 

These  "bachelor"  seals  are,  I  am  sure,  without  exception,  the 
most  restless  animals,  in  the  whole  brute  creation,  which  can  boast 
of  a  high  organization.  They  frolic  and  lope  about  over  the  grounds 
for  hours  without  a  moment's  cessation,  and  their  sleep  after  this  is 
exceedingly  short,  and  it  is  ever  accompanied  by  nervous  twitch- 
ings  and  uneasy  muscular  movements.  They  seem  to  be  fairly 
brimful  and  overrunning  with  spontaneity,  to  be  surcharged  with 
fervid,  electric  life. 

Another  marked  feature  observed  among  the  multitudes  of 
"  holluschickie  "  which  have  come  under  my  personal  observation 
and  auditory,  and  one  very  characteristic  of  this  class,  is  that 
nothing  like  ill-humor  appears  in  all  of  their  playing  together. 
They  never  growl  or  bite  or  show  even  the  slightest  angry  feeling, 
but  are  invariably  as  happy,  one  with  another,  as  can  be  imagined. 
This  is  a  very  singular  trait.  They  lose  it,  however,  with  astonish- 
ing rapidity  when  their  ambition  and  strength  develops  and  carries 
them  in  due  course  of  time  to  the  rookery. 

The  pups  and  yearlings  have  an  especial  fondness  for  sporting 
on  rocks  which  are  just  at  the  water's  level  and  awash,  so  as  to  be 
covered  and  uncovered  as  the  surf  rolls  in.  On  the  bare  summit  of 
these  wave-worn  spots  they  will  struggle  and  clamber,  in  groups  of 
a  dozen  or  two  at  a  time,  throughout  the  whole  day  in  endeavoring 
to  push  off  that  one  of  their  number  which  has  just  been  fortunate 
enough  to  secure  a  landing.  The  successor  has,  however,  but  a 
brief  moment  of  exultation  in  victory,  for  the  next  roller  that  comes 
booming  in,  together  with  that  pressure  by  its  friends,  turns  the  table, 
and  the  game  is  repeated,  with  another  seal  on  top.  Sometimes,  as 
well  as  I  could  see,  the  same  squad  of  "holluschickie  "  played  for  an 
entire  day  and  night,  without  a  moment's  cessation,  around  such  a 
rock  as  this  off  "  Nah  Speel "  rookery ;  still,  in  this  observation  I 
may  be  mistaken,  because  those  seals  could  not  be  told  apart. 

That  graceful  unconcern  with  which  fur-seals  sport  safely  in, 
among,  and  under  booming  breakers,  during  the  prevalence  of 
numerous  wild  gales  at  the  islands,  has  afforded  me  many  consecu- 
tive hours  of  spell-bound  attention  to  them,  absorbed  in  watching 
their  adroit  evolutions  within  the  foaming  surf,  that  seemingly  every 
moment  would,  in  its  fierce  convulsions,  dash  these  hardy  swim- 
mers, stunned  and  lifeless,  against  those  iron-bound  foundations 
of  the  shore  which  alone  checked  the  furious  rush  of  the  waves. 
Not  at  all  Through  the  wildest  and  most  ungovernable  mood  of 


300 


OUK  AKCTIC   PKOVINCE. 


a  roaring  tempest  and  storm-tossed  waters  attending  its  transit  I 
never  failed,  on  creeping  out  and  peering  over  the  bluffs  in  such 
weather,  to  see  squads  of  these  perfect  watermen,  the  most  expert 
of  all  amphibians,  gambolling  in  the  seething,  creamy  wake  of 
mighty  rollers  which  constantly  broke  in  thunder-tones  over  their 
alert,  dodging  heads.  The  swift  succeeding  waves  seemed  every 
instant  to  poise  those  seals  at  the  very  verge  of  death ;  yet  the 
Callorhinus,  exulting  in  his  skill  and  strength,  bade  defiance  to 
their  wrath  and  continued  his  diversions. 


Fur-seals  rising  to  breathe  and   look  around. 
[Characteristic  pelagic  attitude  of  the  ';  holluschickie.'"  ] 

The  "  holluschickie  "  are  the  champion  swimmers  of  all  the  seal 
tribe  ;  at  least,  when  in  the  water  around  the  islands,  they  do  nearly 
every  fancy  tumble  and  turn  that  can  be  executed.  The  grave  old 
males  and  their  matronly  companions  seldom  indulge  in  any  extrava- 
gant display,  as  do  these  youngsters,  which  jump  out  of  the  water 
like  so  many  dolphins,  describing  beautiful  elliptic  curves  sheer 
above  its  surface,  rising  three  and  even  four  feet  from  the  sea,  with 
the  back  slightly  arched,  the  fore  flippers  folded  tightly  against  the 
sides,  and  the  hinder  ones  extended  and  pressed  together  straight 
out  behind,  plumping  in  head  first,  to  reappear  in  the  same  man- 


•  AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  301 

ner,  after  an  interval  of  a  few  seconds  of  submarine  swimming,  swift 
as  the  flight  of  a  bird  on  its  course.  Sea-lions  and  hair-seals  never 
leap  in  this  manner. 

All  classes  will  invariably  make  these  dolphin-jumps  when  they 
are  surprised  or  are  driven  into  the  water,  curiously  turning  their 
heads  while  sailing  in  the  air,  between  the  "rises"  and  "plumps," 
to  take  a  look  at  the  cause  of  their  disturbance.  They  all  swim 
rapidly,  with  the  exception  of  the  pups,  and  may  be  said  to  dart 
under  the  water  with  the  velocity  of  a  bird  on  the  wing.  As  they 
swim  they  are  invariably  submerged,  running  along  horizontally 
about  two  or  three  feet  below  the  surface,  guiding  their  course  with 
the  hind  flippers,  as  by  an  oar,  and  propelling  themselves  solely  by 
the  fore  feet,  rising  to  breathe  at  intervals  which  are  either  very 
frequent  or  else  so  wide  apart  that  it  is  impossible  to  see  the  speed- 
ing animal  when  he  rises  a  second  time.* 

How  long  they  can  remain  under  water  without  taking  a  fresh 
breath  is  a  problem  which  I  had  not  the  heart  to  solve,  by  insti- 
tuting a  series  of  experiments  at  the  island  ;  but  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that,  if  the  truth  were  known  in  regard  to  their  ability  of 
going  without  rising  to  breathe,  it  would  be  considered  astounding. 
On  this  point,  however,  I  have  no  data  worth  discussing,  but  will 
say  that  in  all  their  swimming  which  I  have  had  a  chance  to  study, 
as  they  passed  under  the  water,  mirrored  to  my  eyes  from  the  bluff 
above  by  the  whitish-colored  rocks  below  the  rookery  waters  at 

*  If  there  is  any  one  faculty  better  developed  than  the  others  in  the  brain 
of  the  intelligent  Cattorhimis,  it  must  be  its  "  bump"  of  locality.  The  unerr- 
ing directness  with  which  it  pilots  its  annual  course  back  through  thousands 
of  miles  of  watery  waste  to  these  spots  of  its  birth — small  fly-dots  of  land  in 
the  map  of  Bering  Sea  and  the  North  Pacific — is  a  very  remarkable  exhibition 
of  its  skill  in  navigation.  While  the  Russians  were  established  at  Bodega 
and  Ross,  Cal. ,  seventy  years  ago,  they  frequently  shot  fur-seals  at  sea  when 
hunting  the  sea-otter  off  the  coast  between  Fuca  Straits  and  the  Farallones. 
Many  of  these  animals,  late  in  May  and  early  in  June,  were  so  far  advanced  in 
pregnancy  that  it  was  deemed  certain  by  their  captors  that  some  shore  must 
be  close  at  hand  upon  which  the  near-impending  birth  of  the  pup  took  place. 
Thereupon  the  Russians  searched  over  every  rod  of  the  coast-line  of  the  main- 
land and  the  archipelago  between  California  and  the  peninsula  of  Alaska, 
vainly  seeking  everywhere  there  for  a  fur-seal  rookery.  They  were  slow  to 
understand  how  animals  so  close  to  the  throes  of  parturition  could  strike  out 
into  the  broad  ocean  to  swim  fifteen  hundred  or  two  thousand  miles  within  a 
week  or  ten  days  ere  they  landed  on  the  Pribylov  group,  and,  almost  immedi- 
ately after,  give  birth  to  their  offspring. 


302  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

Great  Eastern  rookery,  I  have  not  been  able  to  satisfy  myself  how 
they  used  their  long,  flexible  hindfeet,  other  than  as  steering  media. 
If  these  posterior  members  have  any  perceptible  motion,  it  is  so  rapid 
that  my  eye  is  not  quick  enough  to  catch  it  ;  but  the  fore  flippers, 
however,  can  be  most  distinctly  seen  as  they  work  in  feathering  for- 
ward and  sweeping  flatly  back,  opposed  to  the  water,  with  great  ra- 
pidity and  energy.  They  are  evidently  the  sole  propulsive  power 
of  the  fur-seal  in  the  water,  as  they  are  its  main  fulcrum  and  lever 
combined  for  progression  on  land.  I  regret  that  the  shy  nature  of 
the  hair-seal  never  allowed  me  to  study  its  swimming  motions,  but 
it  seems  to  be  a  general  point  of  agreement  among  authorities  on 
the  Phocidce,  that  all  motion  in  water  by  them  arises  from  that  power 
which  they  exert  and  apply  with  the  hindfeet.  So  far  as  my  obser- 
vations on  the  hair-seal  go,  I  am  inclined  to  agree  with  this  opinion. 

All  their  movements  in  water,  no  matter  whether  travelling  to 
some  objective  point  or  merely  in  sport,  are  quick  and  joyous,  and 
nothing  is  more  suggestive  of  intense  satisfaction  and  pure  phys- 
ical comfort  than  is  that  spectacle  which  we  can  see  every  August 
a  short  distance  at  sea  from  any  rookery,  where  thousands  of 
old  males  and  females  are  idly  rolling  over  in  the  billows  side  by 
side,  rubbing  and  scratching  with  their  fore  and  hind  flippers, 
which  are  here  and  there  stuck  up  out  of  the  water  by  their  own- 
ers, like  so  many  lateen-sails  of  Mediterranean  feluccas,  or,  when 
their  hind  flippers  are  presented,  like  a  "cat-o'-nine  tails."  They 
sleep  in  the  water  a  great  deal,  too,  more  than  is  generally  supposed, 
showing  that  they  do  not  come  ashore  to  rest — very  clearly  not. 

How  fast  the  fur-seal  can  swim,  when  doing  its  best,  I  am 
naturally  unable  to  state.  I  do  know  that  a  squad  of  young  "  hol- 
luschickie "  followed  the  Reliance,  in  which  I  was  sailing,  down 
from  the  latitude  of  the  Seal  Islands  to  Akootan  Pass  with  perfect 
ease  ;  playing  around  the  vessel  while  she  was  logging,  straight 
ahead,  fourteen  knots  to  the  hour. 

When  the  "  holluschickie  "  are  up  on  land  they  can  be  readily 
separated  into  their  several  classes,  as  to  age,  by  the  color  of  their 
coats  and  size,  when  noted  :  thus,  as  yearlings,  two,  three,  four, 
and  five  years  old  males.  When  the  yearlings,  or  the  first  class, 
haul  out,  they  are  dressed  just  as  they  were  after  they  shed  their 
pup-coats  and  took  on  the  second  covering,  during  the  previous 
year  in  September  and  October ;  and  now,  as  they  come  out  in 
the  spring  and  summer,  one  year  old,  the  males  and  females  can- 


AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS.  303 

not  be  distinguished  apart,  either  by  color  or  size,  shape  or  action  ; 
the  yearlings  of  both  sexes  have  the  same  steel-gray  backs  and 
white  stomachs,  and  are  alike  in  behavior  and  weight. 

Next  year  those  yearling  females,  which  are  now  trooping  out 
with  these  youthful  males  on  the  hauling-grounds,  will  repair  to 
the  rookeries,  but  their  male  companions  will  be  obliged  to  return 
alone  to  this  same  spot. 

About  the  15th  and  20th  of  every  August  they  have  become 
perceptibly  "stagey,"  or,  in  other  words,  their  hair  is  well  under 
way  in  shedding.  All  classes,  with  the  exception  of  the  pups,  go 
through  this  renewal  at  this  time  every  year.  The  process  requires 
about  six  weeks  between  the  first  dropping  or  falling  out  of  the  old 
over-hair  and  its  full  substitution  by  the  new :  this  change  takes 
place,  as  a  rule,  between  August  1st  and  September  28th. 

The  fur  is  shed,  but  it  is  so  shed  that  the  ability  of  a  seal  to 
take  to  the  water  and  stay  there,  and  not  be  physically  chilled  or 
disturbed  during  its  period  of  moulting,  is  never  impaired.  The 
whole  surface  of  these  extensive  breeding-grounds,  traversed  over 
by  me  after  the  seals  had  gone,  was  literally  matted  with  shedded 
hair  and  fur.  This  under-fur  or  pelage  is,  however,  so  fine  and 
delicate,  and  so  much  concealed  and  shaded  by  the  coarser  over- 
hair,  that  a  careless  eye  or  a  superficial  observer  might  be  pardoned 
in  failing  to  notice  the  fact  of  its  dropping  and  renewal. 

The  yearling  cows  retain  the  colors  of  the  old  coat  in  the  new, 
when  they  shed  for  the  first  time,  and  so  repeat  them  from  that 
time  on,  year  after  year,  as  they  live  and  grow  old.  The  young 
three-year-olds  and  the  mature  cows  look  exactly  alike,  as  far  as 
color  goes,  when  they  haul  up  at  first  and  dry  out  on  the  rookeries, 
every  June  and  July. 

The  yearling  males,  however,  make  a  radical  change  when  they 
shed  for  the  first  time,  since  they  come  out  from  their  "  staginess  " 
in  a  nearly  uniform  dark  gray,  and  gray  and  black  mixed,  and 
lighter,  with  dark  ochre  to  whitish  on  the  upper  and  under  parts, 
respectively.  This  coat,  next  year,  when  they  appear  as  two-year- 
olds,  shedding  for  the  three-year-old  coat,  is  a  very  much  darker 
gray,  and  so  on  to  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  seasons ;  then  after 
this,  with  age,  they  begin  to  grow  more  gray  and  brown,  with 
a  rufous-ochre  and  whitish-tipped  "  wig  "  on  the  shoulders.  Some 
of  the  very  old  bulls  change  in  their  declining  years  to  a  uniform 
shade,  all  over,  of  dull-grayish  ochre.  The  full  glory  and  beauty  of 


304 


OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 


the  seal's  mustache  is  denied  to  him  until  he  has  attained  his  sev- 
enth or  eighth  year. 

The  male  does  not  get  his  full  growth  and  weight  until  the 
close  of  his  seventh  year,  but  realizes  most  of  it,  osteologically 
speaking,  by  the  end  of  the  fifth  ;  and  from  this  it  may  be  perhaps 
truly  inferred  that  the  male  seals  live  to  an  average  age  of  eighteen 
or  twenty  years,  if  undisturbed  in  a  normal  condition,  and  that  the 
females  exist  ten  or  twelve  seasons  under  the  same  favorable  cir- 
cumstances. Their  respective  weights,  when  fully  mature  and  fat, 
in  the  spring,  will,  in  regard  to  the  male,  strike  an  average  of  from 
four  to  five  hundred  pounds,  while  the  females  will  show  a  mean  of 
from  seventy  to  eighty  pounds. 

The  female  does  not  gain  a  maximum  size  and  weight  until  the 
end  of  her  fourth  year,  so  far  as  I  have  observed,  but  she  does  most 
of  her  longitudinal  growing  in  the  first  two.  After  she  has  passed 
her  fourth  and  fifth  years,  she  weighs  from  thirty  to  fifty  pounds 
more  than  she  did  in  the  days  of  her  youthful  maternity.*  In  the 

*  I  did  not  permit  myself  to  fall  into  error  by  estimating  this  matter  of 
weight,  because  I  early  found  that  the  apparent  huge  bulk  of  a  sea-lion  bull  or 
fur-seal  male,  when  placed  upon  the  scales,  shrank  far  below  my  notions :  I  took 
a  great  deal  of  pains,  on  several  occasions,  during  the  killing-season,  to  have  a 
platform  scale  carted  out  into  the  field,  and  as  the  seals  were  knocked  down, 
and  before  they  were  bled,  I  had  them  carefully  weighed,  constructing  the  fol- 
lowing table  from  my  observations : 


Age. 

Length. 

Girth. 

Gross 
weight  of 
body. 

Weight 
of  skin. 

Remarks. 

One  week 

Inches. 
12  to  14 

24 

38 

45 
52 

58 
65 
72 
75  to  80 

Inches. 
lOtolOi 

25 
25 

30 
36 
42 
52 

64 

70  to  75 

Pounds. 
6  to  7$ 

39 
39 

58 
87 
135 
200 
280 
400  to  500 

Pounds. 
1* 

3 

4* 

5i 
7 
12 
16 
26 
45  to  50 

Amale  and  female,  being  the 
only  ones  of  the  class  han- 
dled, June  20,  1873. 
A    mean    of   ten    examples, 
males  and  females,  alike  ia 
size,  November  28,  1872. 
A    mean    of    six   examples, 
males  and  females,  alike  in 
size,  July  14,  1873. 
A  mean  of  thirty  examples, 
all  males.  July  24,  1873. 
A  mean  of  thirty-two  exam- 
ples, all  males,  July  24,  1873. 
A  mean  of  ten  examples,  all 
males,  July  24.  1873. 
A  mean  of  five  examples,  all 
males,  July  24,  1873. 
A  mean   of  three  examples, 
all  males,  July  24,  1873. 
An  estimate  only,  calculating 
on  the  weight  (when  fat, 
and  early  in  the  season),  of 
old  bulls. 

Six  months 

One  year  
Two  years  

Three  years  

Four  years  

Five  years 

Six  years            .     . 

Eight  to  twenty  years. 

AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  305 

table  of  these  weights  given  below  it  will  be  observed  that  the  adult 
females  correspond  with  the  three  years  old  males  ;  also,  that  the 
younger  cows  weigh  frequently  only  seventy-five  pounds,  and  many 
of  the  older  ones  go  as  high  as  one  hundred  and  twenty,  but  an  av- 
erage of  eighty  to  eighty-five  pounds  is  the  rule.  Those  specimens 
just  noted  which  I  weighed  were  examples  taken  by  me  for  trans- 
mission to  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  otherwise  I  should  not 
have  been  permitted  to  make  this  record  of  their  bulk,  inasmuch 
as  weighing  them  means  to  kill  them  ;  and  the  law  and  the  habit, 
or  rather  the  prejudice  of  the  entire  community  up  there,  is  unan- 
imously in  opposition  to  any  such  proceeding,  for  they  never  touch 
females,  and  never  go  near  or  disturb  the  breeding-grounds  on 
such  an  errand.  It  will  be  noticed,  also,  that  I  have  no  statement 
of  the  weights  of  any  exceedingly  fat  and  heavy  males  which  appear 
first  on  the  breeding  grounds  in  the  spring ;  those  which  I  have 
referred  to,  in  the  table  above  given,  were  very  much  heavier  at  the 
time  of  their  first  appearance,  in  May  and  June,  than  at  the  moment 
when  they  were  in  my  hands,  in  July ;  but  the  cows,  and  the  other 
classes,  do  not  sustain  protracted  fasting,  and  therefore  their  avoirdu- 
pois may  be  considered  substantially  the  same  throughout  the  year. 

Thus,  from  the  fact  that  all  the  young  seals  and  females  do  not 
vary  much  in  weight  from  the  time  of  their  first  coming  out  in 
the  spring,  till  that  of  their  leaving  in  the  fall  and  early  winter,  I 
feel  safe  in  saying  that  they  feed  at  irregular  but  not  long  intervals, 
during  this  period  when  they  are  here  under  our  observation,  since 
they  are  constantly  changing  from  land  to  water  and  from  water  to 
land,  day  in  and  day  out.  I  do  not  think  that  the  young  males  fast 
longer  than  a  week  or  ten  days  at  a  time,  as  a  rule. 

By  the  end  of  October  and  November  10th,  a  great  mass  of 
the  "  holluschickie,"  the  trooping  myriads  of  English  Bay,  South- 
west Point,  Reef  Parade,  Lukannon  Sands,  the  table-lands  of  Pola- 
vina,  and  the  mighty  hosts  of  Novastoshnah,  at  St.  Paul,  together 
with  the  quota  of  St.  George,  had  taken  their  departure  from  these 
shores,  and  had  gone  out  to  sea,  feeding  upon  the  receding 
schools  of  fish  that  were  now  retiring  to  the  deeper  waters  of  the 
North  Pacific,  where,  in  that  vast  expanse,  over  which  rolls  an  un- 
broken billow,  five  thousand  miles  from  Japan  to  Oregon,  they 
spend  the  winter  and  the  early  spring,  until  they  reappear  and 
break  up,  with  their  exuberant  life,  the  dreary  winter-isolation  of 
the  land  which  gave  them  birth. 
20 


306  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

A  few  stragglers  remain,  however,  as  late  as  the  snow  and  ice 
will  permit  them  to,  in  and  after  December  ;  then  they  are  clown 
by  the  water's  edge,  and  haul  up  entirely  on  the  rocky  beaches, 
deserting  the  sand  altogether  ;  but  the  first  snow  that  falls  in  Oc- 
tober makes  them  very  uneasy,  and  a  large  hauling-ground  will  be 
so  disturbed  by  a  rainy  day  and  night  that  its  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  occupants  fairly  deserted  it.  The  fur-seal  cannot  bear, 
and  will  not  endure,  the  spattering  of  sand  into  its  eyes,  which 
usually  accompanies  the  driving  of  a  rain-storm  ;  they  take  to  the 
water,  to  reappear,  however,  when  that  nuisance  shall  be  abated. 

The  weather  in  which  the  fur-seal  delights  is  cool,  moist,  foggy, 
and  thick  enough  to  keep  the  sun  always  obscured,  so  as  to  cast  no 
shadows.  Such  weather,  which  is  the  normal  weather  of  St.  Paul 
and  St.  George,  continued  for  a  few  weeks  in  June  and  July,  brings 
up  from  the  sea  millions  of  fur-seals.  But,  as  I  have  before  said,  a 
little  sunshine,  which  raises  the  temperature  as  high  as  50°  to  55° 
Fahr.,  will  send  them  back  from  the  hauling-grounds  almost  as 
quickly  as  they  came.  Fortunately,  these  warm,  sunny  days  on  the 
PribyloV  Islands  are  so  rare  that  the  seals  certainly  can  have  no 
ground  of  complaint,  even  if  we  may  presume  they  have  any  at  all. 
Some  curious  facts  in  regard  to  their  selection  of  certain  localities 
on  these  islands,  and  their  abandonment  of  others,  are  now  on  record. 

I  looked  everywhere  and  constantly,  when  threading  my  way 
over  acres  of  ground  which  were  fairly  covered  with  seal-pups  and 
older  ones,  for  specimens  that  presented  some  abnormity,  i.e.,  mon- 
strosities, albinos,  and  the  like,  such  as  I  have  seen  in  our  great 
herds  of  stock  ;  but  I  was,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  unable  to 
note  anything  of  the  kind.  I  have  never  seen  any  malformations  or 
"monsters"  among  the  pups  and  other  classes  of  the  fur-seals,  nor 
have  the  natives  recorded  anything  of  the  kind,  so  far  as  I  could  as- 
certain from  them.  I  saw  only  three  albino  pups  among  the  multi- 
tudes on  St.  Paul,  and  none  on  St.  George.  They  did  not  differ,  in 
any  respect,  from  the  normal  pups  in  size  and  shape.  Their  hair, 
for  the  first  coat,  was  a  dull  ochre  all  over ;  the  fur  whitish,  chang- 
ing to  a  rich  brown,  the  normal  hue  ;  the  flippers  and  muzzle  were  a 
pinkish  flesh-tone  in  color,  and  the  iris  of  the  eye  sky-blue.  After 
they  shed,  during  the  following  year,  they  have  a  dirty,  yellowish- 
white  color,  which  makes  them  exceedingly  conspicuous  when 
mixed  in  among  a  vast  majority  of  black  pups,  gray  yearlings,  and 
"  holluschickie  "  of  their  kind. 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  307 

Undoubtedly  some  abnormal  birth-shapes  must  make  their  ap- 
pearance occasionally  ;  but  at  no  time  while  I  was  there,  searching 
keenly  for  any  such  manifestation  of  malformation  on  the  rookeries, 
did  I  see  a  single  example.  The  morphological  symmetry  of  the 
fur-seal  is  one  of  the  most  salient  of  its  characteristics,  viewed  as  it 
rallies  here  in  such  vast  numbers  ;  but,  the  osteological  differentia- 
tion and  asymmetry  of  this  animal  is  equally  surprising. 

It  is  perfectly  plain  that  a  large  percentage  of  this  immense 
number  of  seals  must  die  every  year  from  natural  limitation  of  life. 
They  do  not  die  on  these  islands  ;  that  much  I  am  certain  of.  Not 
one  dying  a  natural  death  could  I  find  or  hear  of  on  the  grounds. 
They  evidently  lose  their  lives  at  sea,  preferring  to  sink  with  the 
rigor  mortis  into  that  cold,  blue  depth  of  the  great  Pacific,  or  be- 
neath the  green  waves  of  Bering  Sea,  rather  than  to  encumber  and 
disfigure  their  summer  haunts  on  the  Pribylov  Islands. 

Prior  to  the  year  1835,  no  native  on  the  islands  seemed  to  have 
any  direct  knowledge,  or  was  even  acquainted  with  a  legendary  tradi- 
tion, in  relation  to  the  seals,  concerning  their  area  and  distribution 
on  the  land  here  ;  but  they  all  chimed  in  after  that  date  with  great 
unanimity,  saying  that  the  winter  preceding  this  season  (1835-36) 
was  one  of  frightful  severity  ;  that  many  of  their  ancestors  who  had 
lived  on  these  islands  in  large  barraboras  just  back  of  the  Black 
Bluffs,  near  the  present  village,  and  at  Polavina,  then  perished 
miserably. 

They  say  that  the  cold  continued  far  into  the  summer  ;  that  im- 
mense masses  of  clearer  and  stronger  ice-floes  than  had  ever  been 
known  to  the  waters  about  the  islands,  or  were  ever  seen  since, 
were  brought  down  and  shoved  high  up  on  to  all  the  rookery  mar- 
gins, forming  an  icy  wall  completely  around  the  island,  and  loomed 
twenty  to  thirty  feet  above  the  surf.  They  further  state  that  this 
frigid  cordon  did  not  melt  or  in  any  way  disappear  until  the  mid- 
dle or  end  of  August,  1836. 

They  affirm  that  for  this  reason  the  fur-seals,  when  they  at- 
tempted to  land,  according  to  their  habit  and  their  necessity, 
during  June  and  July,  were  unable  to  do  so  in  any  considerable 
numbers.  The  females  were  compelled  to  bring  forth  their  young 
in  the  water  and  at  the  wet,  storm-beaten  surf-margins,  which 
caused  multitudes  of  mothers  and  all  of  the  young  to  perish.  In 
short,  the  result  was  a  virtual  annihilation  of  the  breeding-seals. 
Hence,  at  the  following  season,  only  a  spectral,  a  shadowy  imitation 


308  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

of  former  multitudes  could  be  observed  upon  the  seal-grounds  of 
St.  Paul  and  St.  George. 

On  the  Lagoon  rookery,  now  opposite  the  village  of  St.  Paul, 
there  were  then  only  two  males,  with  a  number  of  cows.  At  Nah 
Speel,  close  by  and  right  under  the  village,  there  were  then  only 
some  two  thousand.  This  the  natives  know,  because  they  counted 
them.  On  Zapadnie  there  were  about  one  thousand  cows,  bulls, 
and  pups  ;  at  Southwest  Point  there  were  none.  Two  small  rook- 
eries were  then  on  the  north  shore  of  St.  Paul,  near  a  place  called 
"  Maroonitch  ; "  and  there  were  seven  small  rookeries  running 
round  Northeast  Point,  but  on  all  of  these  there  were  only  fifteen 
hundred  males,  females,  and  young  ;  and  this  number  includes  the 
"holluschickie,"  which,  in  those  days,  lay  in  among  the  breeding- 
seals,  there  being  so  few  old  males  that  they  were  gladly  permitted 
to  do  so.  On  Polavina  there  were  then  about  five  hundred  cows, 
bulls,  pups,  and  "  holluschickie  ; "  on  Lukannon  and  Keetavie, 
about  three  hundred ;  but  on  Keetavie  there  were  only  ten  bulls 
and  so  few  young  males  lying  in  altogether  that  these  old  natives,  as 
they  told  me,  took  no  note  of  them  on  the  rookeries  just  cited. 
On  the  Reef,  and  Gorbatch,  were  about  one  thousand  only.  In  this 
number  last  mentioned  some  eight  hundred  "holluschickie  "  may 
be  included,  which  laid  with  the  breeding-seals.  There  were  only 
twenty  bulls  on  Gorbatch,  and  about  ten  old  males  on  theEeef. 

Such,  briefly  and  succinctly,  is  the  sum  and  the  substance  of 
all  information  which  I  could  gather  prior  to  1835-36  ;  and  while 
I  do  not  entirely  credit  these  statements,  yet  the  earnest,  straight- 
forward agreement  of  the  natives  has  impressed  me  so  that  I  nar- 
rate it  here.  It  certainly  seems  as  though  this  enumeration  of  the 
old  Aleutes  was  painfully  short. 

Then,  again,  with  regard  to  the  probable  truth  of  the  foregoing 
statement  of  the  natives,  perhaps  I  should  call  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  entire  sum  of  seal-life  in  1836,  as  given  by  them,  is  just 
four  thousand  one  hundred,  of  all  classes,  distributed  as  I  have  in- 
dicated above.  Now,  on  turning  to  Bishop  Veniaminov,  by  whom 
was  published  the  only  statement  of  any  kind  in  regard  to  the  kill- 
ing on  these  islands  from  1817  to  1837  (the  year  when  he  finished 
his  work),  I  find  that  he  makes  a  record  of  slaughter  of  seals  in  the 
year  1836  of  four  thousand  and  fifty-two,  which  were  killed  and 
taken  for  their  skins  ;  but  if  the  natives'  statements  are  right,  then 
only  fifty  seals  were  left  on  the  island  for  1837,  in  which  year, 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  309 

however,  four  thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty  were  again  killed, 
according  to  the  bishop's  table,  and  according  to  which  there  was  also 
a  steady  increase  in  the  size  of  this  return  from  that  date  along  up 
to  1850,  when  the  Russians  governed  their  catch  by  the  market 
alone,  always  having  more  seals  than  they  knew  what  to  do  with. 

Again,  in  this  connection,  the  natives  say  that  until  1847  the 
practice  on  these  islands  was  to  kill  indiscriminately  both  females 
and  males  for  skins  ;  but  after  this  year,  1847,  that  strict  respect 
now  paid  to  the  breeding-seals,  and  exemption  of  all  females,  was 
enforced  for  the  first  time,  and  has  continued  up  to  date. 

In  attempting  to  form  an  approximate  conception  of  what  th« 
seals  were  or  might  have  been  in  those  early  days,  as  they  spread 
themselves  over  the  hauling  and  breeding  grounds  of  these  remark- 
able islands,  I  have  been  thrown  entirely  upon  the  vague  statements 
given  to  me  by  the  natives  and  one  or  two  of  the  first  American 
pioneers  in  Alaska.  The  only  Russian  record  which  touches  ever 
so  lightly  upon  the  subject*  contains  a  remarkable  statement 

*  Veniaminov :  Zapieskie  ob  Oonalashkenskaho  Otdayla,  2  vols. ,  St.  Pe- 
tersburg, 1842.  This  work  of  Bishop  Innocent  Veniaminov  is  the  only  one 
which  the  Russians  can  lay  claim  to  as  exhibiting  anything  like  a  history  of 
Western  Alaska,  or  of  giving  a  sketch  of  its  inhabitants  and  resources,  that 
has  the  least  merit  of  truth  or  the  faintest  stamp  of  reliability.  Without  it  we 
should  be  simply  in  the  dark  as  to  much  of  what  the  Russians  were  about  dur- 
ing the  whole  period  of  their  occupation  and  possession  of  that  country.  He 
served,  chiefly  as  a  priest  and  missionary,  for  nineteen  years,  from  1823  to 
1842,  mainly  at  Oonalashka,  having  the  Seal  Islands  in  his  parish,  and  was 
made  Bishop  of  all  Alaska.  He  was  soon  after  recalled  to  Russia,  where  he 
became  the  primate  of  the  national  church,  ranking  second  to  no  man  in  the 
Empire  save  the  Czar.  He  was  advanced  in  life,  being  more  than  ninety 
years  of  age  when  he  died  at  Moscow,  April  22,  1879.  He  must  have  been 
a  man  of  fine  personal  presence,  judging  from  the  following  description  of 
him,  noted  by  Sir  George  Simpson,  who  met  him  at  Sitka  in  1842,  just  as  he 
was  about  to  embark  for  Russia:  "His  appearance,  to  which  I  have  already 
alluded,  impresses  a  stranger  with  something  of  awe,  while  in  further  inter- 
course the  gentleness  which  characterizes  his  every  word  and  deed  insensibly 
moulds  reverence  into  love,  and  at  the  same  time  his  talents  and  attainments 
are  such  as  to  be  worthy  of  his  exalted  station.  With  all  this,  the  bishop  is 
sufficiently  a  man  of  the  world  to  disdain  anything  like  cant.  His  conversa- 
tion, on  the  contrary,  teems  with  amusement  and  instruction,  and  his  com- 
pany is  much  prized  by  all  who  have  the  honor  of  his  acquaintance."  Sir 
Edward  Belcher,  who  saw  him  at  Kadiak  in  1837,  said :  "He  is  a  formidable- 
looking  man,  over  six  feet  three  inches  in  his  boots,  and  athletic.  He  im« 
presses  one  profoundly." 


310  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

which  is,  in  the  light  of  my  surveys,  simply  ridiculous  now — that  is, 
that  the  number  of  fur-seals  on  St.  George  during  the  first  years 
of  Russian  occupation  was  nearly  as  great  as  that  on  St.  Paul.  A 
most  superficial  examination  of  the  geological  character  portrayed 
on  the  accompanying  maps  of  those  two  islands  will  satisfy  any  un- 
prejudiced mind  as  to  the  total  error  of  such  a  statement.  Why, 
a  mere  tithe  only  of  the  multitudes  which  repair  to  St.  Paul  in  per- 
fect comfort  over  the  sixteen  or  twenty  miles  of  splendid  land- 
ing ground  found  thereon  could  visit  St.  George,  when  all  of  the 
coast-line  fit  for  their  reception  on  this  island  is  a  scant  two  and 
a  half  miles  ;  but,  for  that  matter,  there  was  at  the  time  of  my  ar- 
rival and  in  the  beginning  of  my  investigation  a  score  of  equally 
wild  and  incredible  legends  afloat  in  regard  to  the  rookeries  of  St. 
Paul  and  St.  George.  Finding,  therefore,  that  the  whole  work 
must  be  undertaken  de  novo,  I  went  about  it  without  further 
delay. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is,  frankly  stated,  nothing  that 
serves  as  a  guide  to  a  fair  or  even  an  approximate  estimate  as  to 
the  numbers  of  the  fur-seals  on  these  two  islands,  prior  to  the  re- 
sult of  my  labor. 

At  the  close  of  my  investigation  during  the  first  season  of  my  work 
on  the  ground  in  1872  the  fact  became  evident  that  the  breeding 
seals  obeyed  implicitly  an  imperative  and  instinctive  natural  law  of 
distribution — a  law  recognized  by  each  and  every  seal  upon  the 
rookeries  prompted  by  a  fine  consciousness  of  necessity  to  its  own 
well-being.  The  breeding-grounds  occupied  by  them  were,  there- 
fore, invariably  covered  by  the  seals  in  exact  ratio,  greater  or  less, 
as  the  area  upon  which  they  rested  was  larger  or  smaller.  They 
always  covered  the  ground  evenly,  never  crowding  in  at  one  place 
here  to  scatter  out  there.  The  seals  lie  just  as  thickly  together 
where  the  rookery  is  boundless  in  its  eligible  area  to  their  rear  and 
unoccupied  by  them  as  they  do  in  the  little  strips  which  are  ab- 
ruptly cut  off  and  narrowed  by  rocky  walls  behind.  For  instance, 
on  a  rod  of  ground  under  the  face  of  bluffs  which  hem  it  in  to  the 
land  from  the  sea  there  are  just  as  many  seals,  no  more  and  no  less,  as 
will  be  found  on  any  other  rod  of  rookery  ground  throughout  the 
whole  list,  great  and  small — always  exactly  so  many  seals,  under 
any  and  all  circumstances,  to  a  given  area  of  breeding-ground. 
There  are  just  as  many  cows,  bulls,  and  pups  on  a  square  rod  at 
Nah  Speel,  near  the  village,  where  in  1874,  all  told,  there  were  only 


AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS.  311 

seven  or  eight  thousand,  as  there  are  on  any  square  rod  at  North- 
east Point,  where  a  million  of  them  congregate. 

This  fact  being  determined,  it  is  evident  that  just  in  proportion 
as  the  breeding-grounds  of  the  fur-seal  on  these  islands  expand  or 
contract  in  area  from  their  present  dimensions,  so  the  seals  will  in- 
crease or  diminish  in  number. 

That  discovery  at  the  close  of  the  season  of  1872  of  this  law  of 
distribution  gave  me  at  once  the  clue  I  was  searching  for,  in  order 
to  take  steps  by  which  I  could  arrive  at  a  sound  conclusion  as  to 
the  entire  number  of  seals  herding  on  the  Pribylov  group. 

I  noticed,  and  time  has  confirmed  my  observation,  that  the  pe- 
riod for  taking  these  boundaries  of  the  rookeries,  so  as  to  show  this 
exact  margin  of  expansion  at  the  week  of  its  greatest  volume,  or 
when  they  are  as  full  as  they  are  to  be  for  the  season,  is  between 
July  10th  and  20th  of  every  year — not  a  day  earlier  and  not  many 
days  later.  After  July  20th  the  regular  system  of  compact,  even 
organization,  breaks  up.  The  seals  then  scatter  out  in  pods  or 
clusters,  the  pups  leading  the  way,  straying  far  back  :  the  same 
number  then  instantly  cover  twice  and  thrice  as  much  ground  as 
they  did  the  day  or  week  before,  when  they  laid  in  solid  masses  and 
were  marshalled  on  the  rookery  ground  proper. 

There  is  no  more  difficulty  in  surveying  these  seal-margins  dur- 
ing this  week  or  ten  days  in  July  than  there  is  in  drawing  sights 
along  and  around  the  curbs  of  a  stone  fence  surrounding  a  field. 
The  breeding-seals  remain  perfectly  quiet  under  your  eyes  all  over 
the  rookery  and  almost  within  your  touch,  everywhere  on  the  out- 
side of  their  territory  that  you  may  stand  or  walk.  The  margins 
of  massed  life,  which  are  indicated  on  the  topographical  surveys  of 
these  breeding-grounds  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  George,  are  as  clean  cut 
and  as  well  defined  against  the  soil  and  vegetation  as  is  the  shading 
on  my  maps.  There  is  not  the  least  difficulty  in  making  such  sur- 
veys, and  in  making  them  correctly. 

Without  following  such  a  system  of  enumeration,  persons  may 
look  over  these  swarming  myriads  between  Southwest  Point  and 
Novastoshnah,  guessing  vaguely  and  wildly,  at  any  figure  from 
one  million  up  to  ten  or  twelve  millions,  as  has  been  done  repeat- 
edly. How  few  people  know  what  a  million  really  is  !  It  is  very 
easy  to  talk  of  a  million,  but  it  is  a  tedious  task  to  count  it  off :  this 
makes  a  statement  as  to  "millions"  decidedly  more  conserva- 
tive when  the  labor  has  been  accomplished.  After  a  thorough  sur- 


312  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

vey  of  all  these  great  areas  of  reproduction  the  following  presenta- 
tion of  the  actual  number  of  seals  massed  upon  St.  Paul  is  a  fair 
one : 

"  Reef  rookery  "  has  4,016  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  150  feet  of  aver- 
age depth,  making  ground  for 301,000 

"  Gorbotch  rookery"  has  3,660  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  100  feet  of 

average  depth,  making  ground  for 183,000 

"  Lagoon  rookery  "  has  750  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  100  feet  of  aver- 
age depth,  making  ground  for 37,000 

"Nah  Speel  rookery"  has  400  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  40  feet  of 

average  depth,  making  ground  for 8,000 

"  Lukannon  rookery  "  has  2,270  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  150  feet  of 

average  depth,  making  ground,  for 170,000 

"  Keetavie  rookery"  has  2,200  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  150  feet  of 

average  depth,  making  ground  for 165,000 

"Tolstoi  rookery"  has  3,000  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  150  feet  of 

average  depth,  making  ground  for 225,000 

"  Zapadnie  rookery  "  has  5,880  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  150  feet  of 

average  depth,  making  ground  for 441,000 

"Polavina  rookery  "  has  4,000  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  150  feet  of 

average  depth,  making  ground  for 300,000 

"  Novastoshnah,  or  Northeast  Point "  has  15,840  feet  of  sea-margin, 

with  150  feet  of  average  depth,  making  ground  for 1,200,000 


A  grand  total  of  breeding-seals  and  young  for  St.  Paul  Island 

in  1874  of 3,030,000 

The  rookeries  of  St.  George  are  designated  and  measured  as 
below  : 

"  Zapadnie  rookery  "  has  600  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  60  feet  of 

average  depth,  making  ground  for , 18,000 

"  Starry  Arteel  rookery  "  has  500  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  125  feet  of 

average  depth,  making  ground  for 30,420 

"North  rookery  "  has  750  feet  of  sea- margin,  with  150  feet  of  aver- 
age depth,  and  2,000  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  25  feet  of  aver- 
age depth,  making  ground  in  all  for 77,000 

"Little  Eastern  rookery  "  has  750  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  40  feet 

of  average  depth,  making  ground  for 13,000 

**  Great  Eastern  rookery  "  has  900  feet  of  sea-margin,  with  60  feet 

of  average  depth,  making  ground  for 25,000 

A  grand  total  of  the  seal-life  for  St.  George  Island,  breeding- 
seals  and  young,  of 163,420 

Grand  sum  total  for  the  Pribylov  Islands  (season  of    1873), 

breeding-seals  and  young 3,193,420 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  313 

The  figures  thus  given  show  a  grand  massing  of  3,193,420  breed- 
ing-seals and  their  young.  This  enormous  aggregate  is  entirely 
exclusive  of  the  great  numbers  of  the  non-breeding-seals  that,  as 
we  have  pointed  out,  are  never  permitted  to  come  up  on  those 
grounds  which  have  been  surveyed  and  epitomized  by  the  table 
just  exhibited.  That  class  of  seals,  the  "  holluschickie,"  in  general 
terms  (all  males,  and  those  to  which  the  killing  is  confined),  come 
up  on  the  land  and  sea-beaches  between  the  rookeries,  in  immense 
straggling  droves,  going  to  and  from  the  sea  at  irregular  intervals, 
from  the  beginning  to  the  closing  of  an  entire  season.  The 
method  of  the  "holluschickie"  on  these  hauling-grounds  is  not 
systematic — it  is  not  distinct,  like  the  manner  and  law  prescribed 
and  obeyed  by  the  breeding-seals — therefore  it  is  impossible  to 
arrive  at  a  definite  enumeration,  and  my  estimate  for  them  is  purely 
a  matter  of  my  individual  judgment.  I  think  they  may  be  safely 
rated  at  1,500,000  ;  thus,  we  have  the  wonderful  number  of  4,700,- 
000  fur-seals  assembled  every  summer  on  the  rocky  rookeries  and 
sandy  hauling-grounds  of  the  Pribylov  Islands  ! 

No  language  can  express  adequately  your  sensations  when  you 
first  stroll  over  the  outskirts  of  any  one  of  those  great  breeding 
grounds  of  the  fur-seal  on  St.  Paul's  Island.  There  is  no  impres- 
sion on  my  mind  more  fixed  than  is  the  one  stamped  thereon  dur- 
ing the  afternoon  of  a  July  day  when  I  walked  around  the  inner 
margins  of  that  immmense  rookery  at  Northeast  Point— indeed, 
while  I  pause  to  think  of  this  subject,  I  am  fairly  rendered  dumb 
by  the  vivid  spectacle  which  rises  promptly  to  my  view — I  am 
conscious  of  my  inability  to  render  that  magnificent  animal-show 
justice  in  definition.  It  is  a  vast  camp  of  parading  squadrons 
which  file  and  deploy  over  slopes  from  the  summit  of  a  lofty  hill  a 
mile  down  to  where  it  ends  on  the  south  shore — a  long  mile,  smooth 
and  gradual  from  the  sea  to  that  hill-top  ;  the  parade-ground  lying 
between  is  also  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  mile  in  width,  sheer  and 
unbroken.  Now,  upon  that  area  before  my  eyes,  this  day  and  date 
of  which  I  have  spoken,  were  the  forms  of  not  less  than  three- 
fourths  of  a  million  seals — pause  a  moment — think  of  the  number 
—three -fourths  of  a  million  seals,  moving  in  one  solid  mass  from 
sleep  to  frolicsome  gambols,  backward,  forward,  over,  around, 
changing  and  interchanging  their  heavy  squadrons,  until  the  whole 
mind  is  so  confused  and  charmed  by  the  vastness  of  mighty  hosts 
that  it  refuses  to  analyze  any  further.  Then,  too,  I  remember  that 


314 


OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 


the  day  was  one  of  exceeding  beauty  for  that  region — it  was  a 
swift  alternation  overhead  of  those  characteristic  rain-fogs,  be- 
tween the  succession  of  which  the  sun  breaks  out  with  transcen- 
dent brilliancy  through  misty  halos  about  it.  This  parade-field 
reflected  the  light  like  a  mirror,  and  the  seals,  when  they  broke 
apart  here  and  there  for  a  moment,  just  enough  to  show  its  sur- 
face, seemed  as  though  they  walked  upon  the  water.  What  a  scene 
to  put  upon  canvas — that  amphibian  host  involved  in  those  alternate 
rainbow  lights  and  blue-gray  shadows  of  the  fog  ! 


Lion  Neck 


NORTHEAST  POINT 


SCALE  OF  FEET 


Survey  Showing  the  Immense  Breeding  Area  of  Novastoshnah. 
[The shaded  belt  is  that  ground  wholly  covered  by  Fur-Seal  Rookeries.] 

While  Novastoshnah  is  the  largest,  yet  in  some  respects  I  con- 
sider Tolstoi,  with  its  bluffs  and  its  long  sweep  which  takes  in  the 
sands  of  English  Bay,  to  be  the  most  picturesque,  though  it  be  not 
the  most  impressive  rookery — especially  when  that  parade-ground 
belonging  to  it  is  reached  by  the  climbing  seals. 

From  Tolstoi  at  this  point,  circling  around  three  miles  to 
Zapadnie,  is  the  broad  sand-beach  of  English  Bay,  upon  which  and 
back  over  its  gently  rising  flats  are  the  great  hauling-grounds  of 
the  "holluschickie,"  which  I  have  indicated  on  the  general  map, 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS. 


315 


and  to  which  I  made  reference  in  a  previous  section  of  this  chapter. 
Grazing  at  these  myriads  of  "  bachelor-seals  "  spread  out  in  their 
restless  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  thousands  upon  this  ground, 
one  feels  the  utter  impotency  of  verbal  description,  and  reluctantly 
shuts  his  note  and  sketch  books  to  view  it  with  renewed  fascination 
and  perfect  helplessness. 

Looking  from  the  village  across  the  cove  and  down  upon  the 
lagoon,  still  another  strange  contradiction  appears — at  least  it 
seems  a  natural  contradiction  to  one's  usual  ideas.  Here  we  see 


LAGOON  ROOKERY 


Survey  Showing  the  Close  Contact  of  Village,  Slaughter-Field  and  Breeding  Grounds. 

the  Lagoon  rookery,  a  reach  of  ground  upon  which  some  .twenty- 
five  or  thirty  thousand  breeding-seals  come  out  regularly  every 
year  during  the  appointed  time,  and  go  through  their  whole  elabo- 
rate system  of  reproduction,  without  showing  the  slightest  concern 
for  or  attention  to  the  scene  directly  east  of  them  and  across  that 
shallow  slough  not  eighty  feet  in  width.  There  are  the  great 
slaughtering  fields  of  St.  Paul  Island  ;  there  are  the  sand-flats 
where  every  seal  has  been  slaughtered  for  years  upon  years  back, 
for  its  skin  ;  and  even  as  we  take  this  note,  forty  men  are  standing 


316  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

there  knocking  down  a  drove  of  two  or  three  thousand  "hollu- 
schickie  "  for  their  day's  work,  and  as  they  labor,  the  whacking  of 
their  clubs  and  the  sounds  of  their  voices  must  be  as  plain  to  those 
breeding-seals,  which  are  not  one  hundred  feet  from  them,  as  it  is 
to  us,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant !  In  addition  to  this  enumeration 
of  disturbances,  well  calculated  to  amaze,  and  dismay,  and  drive  off 
every  seal  within  its  influence,  are  the  decaying  bodies  of  the  last 
year's  catch — seventy-five  thousand  or  eighty-five  thousand  un- 
buried  carcasses — that  are  sloughing  away  into  the  sand  which, 
two  or  three  seasons  from  now,  nature  will,  in  its  infinite  charity, 
cover  with  the  greenest  of  all  green  grasses.  The  whitened  bones 
and  grinning  skulls  of  over  three  million  seals  have  bleached  out  on 
that  slaughtering-spot,  and  are  buried  below  its  surface. 

Directly  under  the  north  face  of  the  village  hill,  where  it  falls 
to  the  narrow  flat  between  its  feet  and  the  cove,  the  natives  have 
sunk  a  well.  It  was  excavated  in  1857,  they  say,  and  subsequently 
deepened  to  its  present  condition  in  1868.  It  is  twelve  feet  deep, 
and  the  diggers  said  that  they  found  bones  of  the  sea-lion  and  fur- 
seal  thickly  distributed  every  foot  down,  from  top  to  bottom.  How 
much  lower  these  osteological  remains  of  prehistoric  pinnipeds 
can  be  found  no  one  knows  as  yet.  The  water  here,  on  that  ac- 
count, has  never  been  fit  to  drink,  or  even  to  cook  with,  but,  being 
soft,  was  and  is  used  by  the  natives  for  washing  clothes,  etc.  Most 
likely,  it  records  a  spot  upon  which  the  Kussians,  during  the  heyday 
of  their  early  occupation,  drove  the  unhappy  visitors  of  Nah  Speel 
to  slaughter.  There  is  no  Golgotha  known  to  man  elsewhere  in 
the  world  as  extensive  as  this  one  of  St.  Paul. 

Yet,  the  natives  say  that  this  Lagoon  rookery  is  a  new  feature 
in  the  distribution  of  the  seals ;  that  when  the  people  first  came 
here  and  located  a  part  of  the  present  village,  in  1824  up  to  1847, 
there  never  had  been  a  breeding-seal  on  that  Lagoon  rookery  of 
to-day  ;.  so  they  have  hauled  up  here  from  a  small  beginning,  not 
very  long  ago,  until  they  have  attained  their  present  numerical  ex- 
pansion, in  spite  of  all  these  exhibitions  of  butchery  of  their  kind, 
executed  right  under  their  eyes,  and  in  full  knowledge  of  their  nos- 
trils, while  the  groans  and  low  moanings  of  their  stricken  species, 
stretched  out  beneath  the  clubs  of  the  sealers,  must  have  been  and 
are  far  plainer  in  their  ears  than  they  are  in  our  own  ! 

Still  they  come — they  multiply,  and  they  increase — knowing  so 
well  that  they  belong  to  a  class  which  intelligent  men  never  did 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  317 

molest.  To-day  at  least  they  know  it,  or  they  would  not  submit  to 
these  manifestations  which  we  have  just  cited,  so  close  to  their 
knowledge. 

The  Lagoon  rookery,  however,  never  can  be  a  large  one,  on  ac- 
count of  the  very  nature  of  this  ground  selected  by  the  seals  ;  it  is 
a  bar  simply  pushed  up  beyond  the  surf-wash  of  boulders,  water- 
worn  and  rounded,  which  has  almost  enclosed  and  cut  away  the 
Lagoon  from  its  parent  sea.  In  my  opinion,  the  time  is  not  far  dis- 
tant when  that  estuary  will  be  another  inland  lake  of  St.  Paul, 
walled  out  from  salt  water  and  freshened  by  rain  and  melting  snow, 
as  are  the  other  pools,  lakes,  and  lakelets  on  the  island. 

Zapadnie,  in  itself,  is  something  like  the  Reef  plateau  on  its 
eastern  face,  for  it  slopes  up  gradually  and  gently  to  the  parade- 
plateau  above — a  parade-ground  not  so  smooth,  however,  being 
very  rough  and  rocky,  but  which  the  seals  enjoy.  Just  around  the 
point,  a  low  strip  of  rocky  bar  and  beach  connects  it  with  the 
ridge-walls  of  Southwest  Point,  a  very  small  breeding  rookery,  so 
small  that  it  is  not  worthy  of  a  survey,  is  located  here.  I  think, 
probably,  on  account  of  the  nature  of  the  ground,  that  it  will  never 
hold  its  own,  and  is  more  than  likely  abandoned  by  this  time. 

One  of  the  prehistoric  villages,  the  village  of  Pribylov's  time, 
was  established  here  between  that  point  and  the  cemetery  ridge, 
on  which  the  northern  wing  of  Zapadnie  rests.  An  old  burying- 
ground,  with  its  characteristic  Russian  crosses  and  faded  pictures 
of  the  saints,  is  plainly  marked  on  the  ridge.  It  was  at  this  little 
bight  of  sandy  landing  that  Pribylov's  men  first  came  ashore  and 
took  possession  of  the  island,  while  others  in  the  same  season  pro- 
ceeded to  Northeast  Point  and  to  the  north  shore  to  establish 
settlements  of  their  own  order.  When  the  indiscriminate  sealing  of 
1868  was  in  progress,  one  of  the  parties  lived  here,  and  a  salt-house 
which  was  then  erected  by  them  still  stands.  It  is  in  a  very  fair 
state  of  preservation,  although  it  has  never  been  occupied  since* 
except  by  the  natives  who  come  over  here  from  the  village  in  the 
summer  to  pick  those  berries  of  the  Empetrum  and  Rubus,  which 
abound  in  the  greatest  profusion  around  the  rough  and  rocky 
flats  that  environ  a  little  lake  adjacent  The  young  people  of  St. 
Paul  are  very  fond  of  this  berry-festival,  so-called  among  them- 
selves, and  they  stay  there  every  August,  camping  out,  a  week  or 
ten  days  at  a  time,  before  returning  to  their  homes  in  the  village. 

So  abundant  have  been  the  seals  that  no  driving  of  animals  from 


318  CUE   AKCTIC   PROVINCE. 

the  parade-grounds  of  Zapadnie  has  ever  been  made  since  1869.  It 
is  easily  reached,  however,  if  it  were  desirable  to  do  so. 

Polavina  has  also  been  an  old  settlement  site,  and,  for  the  reason 
cited  at  Zapadnie,  no  "  holluschickie  "  have  been  driven  from  this 
point  since  1872,  though  it  is  one  of  the  easiest  worked.  It  was  in 
the  Kussian  times  a  pet  sealing-ground  with  them.  The  remains 
of  an  old  village  have  nearly  all  been  buried  in  the  sand  near  the 
lake,  and  there  is  really  no  mark  of  its  early  habitation,  unless  it  be 
the  singular  effect  of  a  human  graveyard  being  dug  out  and  de- 
spoiled by  the  attrition  of  seal  bodies  and  flippers.  The  old  ceme- 
tery just  above  and  to  the  right  of  the  barrabkie,  near  the  little 
lake,  was  originally  established,  so  the  natives  told  me,  far  away 
from  the  hauling  of  the  "holluschickie."  It  was,  when  I  saw  it  in 
1876,  in  a  melancholy  state  of  ruin.  A  thousand  young  seals  (at 
least)  moved  off  from  its  surface  as  I  came  up,  and  they  had  actually 
trampled  out  many  sandy  graves,  rolling  the  bones  and  skulls  of 
Aleutian  ancestry  in  every  direction.  Beyond  this  ancient  demesne 
which  the  natives  established  long  ago,  as  a  house  of  refuge  during 
the  winter  when  they  were  trapping  foxes,  looking  to  the  west  over 
the  lake,  is  a  large  expanse  of  low,  flat  swale  and  tundra,  which  is  ter- 
minated by  the  rocky  ridge  of  Kamminista.  Every  foot  of  it  has 
been  placed  there  subsequent  to  the  original  elevation  of  the  island 
by  direct  action  of  the  sea,  beyond  question.  It  is  covered  with  a 
thick  growth  of  the  rankest  sphagnum,  which  quakes  and  trembles 
like  a  bog  under  one's  feet,  but  over  which  the  most  beautiful 
mosses  ever  and  anon  crop  out,  including  that  characteristic  floral 
display  before  referred  to  in  speaking  of  the  island.  Most  of  the 
way  from  the  village  up  to  the  Northeast  Point,  as  will  be  seen  by 
a  cursory  glance  at  the  map,  with  the  exception  of  this  bluff  of 
Polavina  and  the  terraced  table  setting  back  from  its  face  to  Pola- 
vina Sopka,  the  whole  island  is  slightly  elevated  above  the  level  of 
the  sea,  and  its  coast-line  is  lying  just  above  and  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  surf,  where  great  ridges  of  sand  have  been  piled  up  by  the 
wind,  capped  with  sheafs  and  tufts  of  rank-growing  Ely  mm. 

Near  the  village,  at  that  little  bight  mapped  as  Zoltoi,  is  a  famous 
rendezvous  for  the  "  holluschickie,"  and  from  this  place  during  the 
season  the  natives  make  regular  drives,  having  only  to  step  out 
from  their  houses  in  the  morning  and  walk  a  few  rods  to  find  their 
fur-bearing  quarry. 

Passing  over  Zoltoi  on  our  way  down  to  the  point,  we  quickly 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  319 

come  to  a  basaltic  ridge  or  back-bone  over  which  the  sand  has  been 
rifted  by  strong  winds,  and  which  supports  a  rank  and  luxuriant 
growth  of  the  Elymus  and  other  grasses,  with  beautiful  flowers. 
A  few  hundred  feet  farther  along  our  course  brings  us  in  full  view, 
as  we  look  to  the  south,  of  one  of  the  most  entrancing  spectacles 
that  seals  afford  to  man.  We  glance  below  upon  and  survey  a 
full  sweep  of  the  Reef  rookery  along  a  grand  promenade  ground, 
which  slopes  gently  to  the  eastward  and  trends  southward  down  to 
the  water  from  its  abrupt  walls  bordering  on  the  sea  to  the 
west ;  it  is  a  parade  plateau  as  smooth  as  the  floor  of  a  ball-room, 
2,000  feet  in  length,  from  500  to  1,000  feet  in  width,  over  which 
multitudes  of  "  holluschickie  "  are  filing  in  long  strings  or  deploy- 
ing in  vast  platoons,  hundreds  abreast,  in  an  unceasing  march  and 
countermarch.  The  breath  that  rises  into  the  cold  air  from  a  hun- 
dred thousand  hot  throats  hangs  like  clouds  of  white  steam  in  the 
gray  fog  itself ;  indeed,  it  may  be  said  to  be  a  seal-fog  peculiar  to 
such  a  spot,  while  the  din,  the  roar  arising  over  all,  defies  adequate 
description. 

We  notice  to  our  right  and  to  our  left  an  immense  solid  mass 
of  the  breeding-seals  at  Gorbotch,  and  another  stretching  and 
trending  nearly  a  mile  from  our  feet,  far  around  to  the  Eeef  Point 
below  and  opposite  that  parade-ground,  with  here  and  there  a 
neutral  passage  left  open  for  the  "holluschickie"  to  go  down  and 
come  up  from  the  waves. 

The  adaptation  of  this  ground  of  the  Eeef  rookery  to  the  re- 
quirements of  the  seal  is  perfect  It  so  lies  that  it  falls  gently  from 
its  high  Zoltoi  Bay  margin,  on  the  west,  to  the  sea  on  the  east,  and 
upon  its  broad  expanse  not  a  solitary  puddle  of  mud-spotting  is  to 
be  seen,  though  everything  is  reeking  with  moisture,  and  the  fog 
even  dissolves  into  rain  as  we  view  the  scene.  Every  trace  of  vege- 
tation upon  this  parade  has  been  obliterated.  A  few  tufts  of  grass, 
capping  the  summits  of  those  rocky  hillocks,  indicated  on  the  east- 
ern and  middle  slope,  are  the  only  signs  of  botanical  life  which  the 
seals  have  suffered  to  remain. 

A  small  rock,  "Seevitchie  Kammin,"  five  or  six  hundred  feet 
right  to  the  southward  and  out  at  sea,  is  also  covered  with  the  black 
and  yellow  forms  of  fur-seals  and  sea-lions.  It  is  environed  by 
shoal-reefs,  rough  and  kelp-grown,  which  navigators  prudently 
avoid. 

At  Lukannon  and  Ketavie  there  is  a  joint  blending  of  two  large 


320  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

breeding-grounds,  their  continuity  broken  by  a  short  reach  of  sea- 
wall right  under  and  at  the  eastern  foot  of  Lukannon  Hill.  The 
appearance  of  these  rookeries  is,  like  all  the  others,  peculiar  to 
themselves.  There  is  a  rounded,  bulging  hill,  at  the  foot  of  Lukan- 
non Bay,  which  rises  perhaps  one  hundred  and  sixty  or  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  feet  from  the  sea,  abruptly  at  the  point,  but 
swelling  out  gently  up  from  the  sand-dunes  in  Lukannon  Bay  to 
its  summit  at  the  northwest  and  south.  The  big  rookery  rests 
upon  its  northern  slope.  Here  is  a  beautiful  adaptation  of  the  fin- 
est drainage,  with  a  profusion  of  those  rocky  nodules  scattered 
everywhere  over  it,  upon  which  the  female  seals  so  delight  in 
resting. 

Standing  on  the  bald  summit  of  Lukannon  Hill,  we  turn  to  the 
south,  and  look  over  Ketavie*  Point,  where  another  large  aggre- 
gate of  rookery  life  rests  under  our  eye.  The  hill  falls  away  into 

*  DEFINITIONS  FOR  RUSSIAN  NAMES  OF  THE  ROOKERIES,  ETC. — The  sev- 
eral titles  on  my  map  that  indicate  the  several  breeding-grounds,  owe  their 
origin  and  have  their  meaning  as  follows : 

ZAPADNIE  signifies  "  westward,"  and  is  so  used  by  the  people  who  live  in 
the  village. 

ZOLTOI  signifies  "  golden,"  so  used  to  express  a  metallic  shimmering  of  the 
sand  there. 

KETAVIE  signifies  "  of  a  whale"  so  used  to  designate  that  point  where  a 
large  right  whale  was  stranded  in  1849  (?)  ;  from  Russian  "keet,"  or  "  whale." 

LUKANNON — so  named  after  one  Lukannon,  a  pioneer  Russian,  that  dis- 
tinguished himself,  with  one  Kaiecov,  a  countryman,  who  captured  a  large 
number  of  sea-otters  at  that  point,  and  on  Otter  Island,  in  1787-88. 

TONKIE  MEES  signifies  "-small  (or  "slender")  cape"  [toukie,  "thin"; 
mees,  "  cape"]. 

POLAVINA literally  signifies  "halfway,"  so  used  by  the  natives  because  it 
is  practically  half  way  between  the  salt-houses  at  Northeast  Point  and  the  vil- 
lage. POLAVINA  SOPKA,  or  "half-way  mountain,"  gets  its  name  in  the  same 
manner. 

NOVASTOSHNAH,  from  the  Russian  "novaite,"  or  " of  recent  growth,"  so 
used  because  this  locality  in  pioneer  days  was  an  island  to  itself ;  and  it  has 
been  annexed  recently  to  the  mainland  of  St.  Paul. 

VESOLIA  MISTA,  or  "jolly  place,"  the  site  of  one  of  the  first  settlements, 
and  where  much  carousing  was  indulged  in. 

MAROONITCH,  the  site  of  a  pioneer  village,  established  by  one  Maroon. 

NAHSAYVERNIA,  or  "on  the  north  shore,"  from  Russian,  " sayvemie." 

BOGASLOV,  or  "  word  of  God,"  indefinite  in  its  application  to  the  place,  but 
is,  perhaps,  due  to  the  fact  that  the  pious  Russians,  immediately  after  landing 
at  Zapadnie,  in  1787,  ascended  the  hill  and  erected  a  huge  cross  thereon. 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  321 

a  series  of  faintly  terraced  tables,  which  drop  down  to  a  flat  that 
again  abruptly  descends  to  the  sea  at  Ketavie  Point.  Between  us 
and  Ketavie  rookery  is  the  parade-ground  of  Lukannon, — a  sight 
almost  as  grand  as  is  that  on  the  Reef  which  we  have  feebly  at- 
tempted to  portray.  The  sand-dunes  to  the  west  and  to  the  north 
are  covered  with  the  most  luxuriant  grass,  abruptly  emarginated  by 
sharp  abrasions  of  the  hauling-seals :  this  is  shown  very  clearly 
on  my  general  map.  Ketavie  Point  is  a  solid  basaltic  shelf.  Lu- 
kannon Hill,  the  summit  of  it,  is  composed  of  volcanic  tufa  and 
cement,  with  irregular  cubes  and  fragments  of  pure  basalt  scattered 
all  over  its  flipper- worn  slopes.  This  is  that  place,  down  along  the 
flat  shoals  of  Lukannon  Bay,  where  the  sand-dunes  are  most  char- 
acteristic, as  they  rise  in  their  wind-whirled  forms  just  above  surf- 
wash.  Here  also  is  where  the  natives  come  from  the  village  during 
the  early  mornings  of  the  season  for  driving,  to  get  any  number  of 
"  holluschickie  "  required. 

It  is  a  beautiful  sight,  glancing  from  the  summit  of  this  great 
rookery  hill,  up  to  the  north  over  that  low  reach  of  the  coast  to 
Tonkie  Mees,  where  the  waves  seem  to  roll  in  with  crests  which  rise 
in  unbroken  ridges  for  a  mile  in  length  each,  ere  they  break  so 
grandly  and  uniformly  on  the  beach.  In  these  rollers  the  "  hollu- 
schickie "  are  playing  like  sea-birds,  seeming  to  sport  the  most  joy- 
ously at  the  very  moment  when  a  heavy  billow  breaks  and  falls 
upon  them. 

The  precipitous  shore-line  of  St.  George  is  enough  in  itself  to  ex- 
plain the  small  number  of  seals  found  there,  when  contrasted  with 
the  swarming  myriads  of  her  more  favorably  adapted  sister  island. 
Nevertheless  that  Muscovitic  sailor,  Pribylov,  not  knowing  then  of 
the  existence  of  St.  Paul,  was  as  well  satisfied  as  if  he  had  pos- 
sessed the  boundless  universe  when  he  first  found  it.  As  in  the 
case  of  St.  Paul  Island,  I  have  been  unable  to  learn  much  here  in 
regard  to  the  early  status  of  the  rookeries,  none  of  the  natives  hav- 
ing any  real  information.  The  drift  of  their  sentiment  goes  to  show 
that  there  never  was  a  great  assemblage  of  fur-seals  on  St.  George 


EINAHNUHTO,  an  Aleutian  word,  signifying  the  "three  mammcs" 
TOLSTOI,  a  Russian  name,  signifying  ''  thick" ;  it  is  given  to  at  least  a  hun- 
dred different  capes  and  headlands  throughout  Alaska,  being  applied  as  indis- 
criminately as  we  do  the  term  "  Bear  Creek  "  to  little  streams  in  our  Western 
States  and  Territories. 
21 


322  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

— in  fact,  never  as  many  as  there  are  to-day,  insignificant  as  the  ex- 
hibit is,  compared  with  that  of  St.  Paul.  They  say  that  at  first  the 
sea-lions  owned  this  island,  and  that  the  Russians,  becoming  cogni- 
zant of  the  fact,  made  a  regular  business  of  driving  off  the  "see- 
vitchie,"  in  order  that  fur-seals  might  be  encouraged  to  land. 
Touching  this  statement,  with  my  experience  on  St.  Paul,  where 
there  is  no  conflict  at  all  between  the  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand 
sea-lions  which  breed  around  on  the  outer  edge  of  the  seal  rookeries 
there  and  at  Southwest  Point,  I  cannot  agree  to  the  St.  George 
legend.  I  am  inclined  to  believe,  however — indeed,  it  is  more  than 
probable — that  there  were  a  great  many  more  sea-lions  on  and 
about  St.  George  before  it  was  occupied  by  men — a  hundred-fold 
greater,  perhaps,  than  now,  because  a  sea-lion  is  an  exceedingly 
timid,  cowardly  creature  when  it  is  in  the  proximity  of  man,  and 
will  always  desert  any  resting-place  where  it  is  constantly  brought 
into  contact  with  him.* 

The  rookeries  on  this  island,  being  so  much  less  in  volume,  are 
not  especially  noted — still,  one  of  them,  "Starry  Arteel,"  is  unique 
indeed,  lying  as  it  does  in  a  bold  sweep  from  the  sea  up  a  very 
steep  slope  to  a  point  where  the  bluffs  bordering  it  seaward  are 
over  four  hundred  feet  in  vertical  declination.  The  seals  crowd 
just  as  closely  to  the  edge  of  this  precipice  along  its  entire  face  as 
they  do  at  the  tide-level.  It  is  a  very  strange  sight  for  that  visitor 
who  may  sail  under  these  bluffs  with  a  boat  in  fair  weather  for  land- 
ing, and,  as  you  walk  the  beach,  above  which  the  cliff-wall  frowns 
a  sheer  five  hundred  feet,  there,  directly  over  your  head,  the  cran- 
ing necks  and  twisting  forms  of  restless  seals,  appear  as  if  ready  to 
launch  out  and  fall  below,  ever  and  anon,  as  you  glance  upward, 
so  closely  and  boldly  do  they  press  to  the  very  edge  of  the  preci- 


*  One  of  the  natives,  "stareek,"  Zachar  Oostigov,  told  me  that  the  "Rus- 
sians, when  they  first  landed,  came  ashore  in  a  thick  fog"  at  Tolstoi  Mees, 
near  the  present  sea-lion  rookery  site.  As  the  water  is  deep  and  "  bold  "  there, 
Pribylov's  sloop,  the  St.  George,  must  have  jammed  her  bowsprit  against  those 
lofty  cliffs  ere  the  patient  crew  had  intimation  of  their  position.  The  old 
Aleut  then  showed  me  that  steep  gully  there,  up  which  the  ardent  discoverers 
climbed  to  a  plateau  above  :  and,  to  demonstrate  that  he  was  not  chilled  or 
weakened  by  age,  he  nimbly  scrambled  down  to  the  surf  below,  some  three 
hundred  and  fifty  vertical  feet,  and  I  followed,  half  stepping  and  half  sliding 
over  Pribylov's  path  of  glad  discovery  and  proud  possession,  trodden  one  June 
day  by  him  nearly  a  hundred  years  ago. 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  323 

pice.  I  have  been  repeatedly  astonished  at  an  amazing  power 
possessed  by  the  fur-seal  of  resistance  to  shocks  which  would  cer- 
tainly kill  any  other  animal.  To  explain  clearly,  the  reader  will 
observe  by  reference  to  the  maps  that  there  are  a  great  many  cliffy 
places  between  the  rookeries  on  the  shore-lines  of  the  islands. 
Some  of  these  bluffs  are  more  than  one  hundred  feet  in  abrupt  ele- 
vation above  the  surf  and  rocks  awash  below.  Frequently  "  hollu- 
schickie,"  in  ones,  or  twos,  or  threes,  will  stray  far  away  back  from 
the  great  masses  of  their  kind  and  fall  asleep  in  the  thick  grass  and 
herbage  which  covers  these  mural  reaches.  Sometimes  they  will 
repose  and  rest  very  close  to  the  edge,  and  then  as  you  come 
tramping  along  you  discover  and  startle  them  and  yourself  alike. 
They,  blinded  by  their  first  transports  of  alarm,  leap  promptly  over 
the  brink,  snorting,  coughing,  and  spitting  as  they  go.  Curiously 
peering  after  them  and  looking  down  upon  the  rocks,  fifty  to  one 
hundred  feet  below,  instead  of  seeing  their  stunned  and  motionless 
bodies,  you  will  invariably  catch  sight  of  them  rapidly  scrambling 
into  the  water,  and,  when  in  it,  swimming  off  like  arrows  from  the 
bow.  Three  "  holluschickie  "  were  thus  inadvertently  surprised  by 
me  on  the  edge  of  the  west  face  to  Otter  Island.  They  plunged  over 
from  an  elevation  there  not  less  than  two  hundred  feet  in  sheer  de- 
scent, and  I  distinctly  saw  them  fall,  in  scrambling,  whirling  evo- 
lutions, down,  thumping  upon  the  rocky  shingle  beneath,  from 
which  they  bounded  as  they  struck,  like  so  many  rubber  balls. 
Two  of  them  never  moved  after  the  rebound  ceased  ;  but  the  third 
one  reached  the  water  and  swam  away  swift  as  a  bird  on  the  wing. 

While  they  seem  to  escape  without  bodily  injury  incident  to 
such  hard  falls  as  ensue  from  dropping  fifty  or  sixty  feet  upon  peb- 
bly beaches  and  rough  boulders  below,  and  even  greater  elevations, 
yet  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  some  internal  injuries  are  necessa- 
rily sustained  in  almost  every  case,  which  soon  develop  and  cause 
death.  The  excitement  and  the  vitality  of  the  seal  at  the  moment 
of  the  terrific  shock  are  able  to  sustain  and  conceal  a  real  injury 
for  the  time  being. 

Driving  the  "  holluschickie  "  on  St.  George,  owing  to  the  rela- 
tive scantiness  of  hauling  area  for  those  animals  there,  and  conse- 
quent small  numbers  found  upon  these  grounds  at  any  one  time,  is 
a  very  arduous  series  of  daily  exercises  on  the  part  of  the  natives 
who  attend  to  it.  Glancing  at  the  map,  the  marked  considerable 
distance  over  an  exceedingly  rough  road  will  be  noticed  between 


324  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

Zapadnie  and  the  village,  yet  in  1872  eleven  different  drives  across 
the  island  of  four  hundred  to  five  hundred  seals  each  were  made  in 
the  short  four  weeks  of  that  season. 

The  peculiarly  rough  character  to  this  trail  is  given  by  large, 
loose,  sharp-edged  basaltic  boulders  which  are  strewn  thickly  over 
all  those  lower  levels  that  bridge  the  island  between  the  high 
bluffs  at  Starry  Arteel  and  the  slopes  of  Ahluckeyak  Hill.  The 
summits  of  the  two  broader,  higher  plateaux,  east  and  west  respec- 
tively, are  comparatively  smooth  and  easy  to  travel  over,  and  so  is 
the  sea-level  flat  at  Zapadnie  itself.  On  the  map  of  St.  George  a 
number  of  very  small  ponds  will  be  noticed.  They  are  the  fresh- 
water reservoirs  of  the  island.  The  two  largest  of  these  are  near 
the  summit  of  this  rough  divide.  The  seal-trail  from  Zapadnie  to 
the  village  runs  just  west  of  them  and  comes  out  on  the  north  shore, 
a  little  to  the  eastward  of  the  hauling-grounds  of  Starry  Arteel, 
where  it  forks  and  unites  with  that  path.  A  direct  line  between 
the  village  and  Zapadnie,  though  nearly  a  mile  shorter  on  the  chart, 
is  equal  to  five  miles  more  of  distance  by  reason  of  its  superlative 
rocky  inequalities. 

One  question  is  always  sure  to  be  asked  in  this  connection.  The 
query  is :  "At  the  present  rate  of  killing  seals  it  will  not  be  long 
ere  they  are  exterminated — how  much  longer  will  they  last  ?  "  My 
answer  is  now  as  it  was  then  :  "Provided  matters  are  conducted  on 
the  Seal  Islands  in  the  future  as  they  are  to-day,  100,000  male  seals 
under  the  age  of  five  years  and  over  one  may  be  safely  taken  every 
year  from  the  Pribylov  Islands  without  the  slightest  injury  to  the  reg- 
ular birth-rate  or  natural  increase  thereon  ;  provided  also  that  the 
fur-seals  are  not  visited  by  plagues  or  by  pests,  or  any  such  abnormal 
cause  for  their  destruction,  which  might  be  beyond  the  control  of 
men,  and  to  which,  like  any  other  great  body  of  animal  life,  they 
must  ever  be  subjected  to  the  danger  of."  *  From  my  calculations 

*  The  thought  of  what  a  deadly  epidemic  would  effect  among  these  vast 
congregations  of  Pinnipedia  was  one  that  was  constant  in  my  mind  when  on 
the  ground  and  among  them.  I  have  found  in  the  "  British  Annals"  (Flem- 
ing's), on  page  17,  an  extract  from  the  notes  of  Dr.  Trail:  "In  1833  I  in- 
quired for  my  old  acquaintances,  the  seals  of  the  Hole  of  Papa  Westray,  and  was 
informed  that  about  four  years  before  they  had  totally  deserted  the  island,  and 
had  only  within  the  last  few  months  begun  to  reappear.  .  .  .  About  fifty 
years  ago  multitudes  of  their  carcasses  were  cast  ashore  in  every  bay  in  the 
north  of  Scotland,  Orkney,  and  Shetland,  and  numbers  were  found  at  sea  in 
a  sickly  state."  This  note  of  Trail  is  the  only  record  which  I  can  find  of  a 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  325 

given  above  it  will  be  seen  that  1,000,000  pups  or  young  seals,  in 
round  numbers,  are  born  upon  these  islands  of  the  Pribylov  group 
every  year.  Of  this  million,  one-half  are  males.  These  500,000 
young  males,  before  they  leave  the  islands  for  sea  during  October 
and  November,  and  when  they  are  between  five  or  six  months  old, 
fat,  and  hardy,  have  suffered  but  a  trifling  loss  in  numbers — say  one 
per  cent. — while  on  and  about  the  islands  of  their  birth,  surrounding 
which  and  upon  which  they  have  no  enemies  whatever  to  speak  of ; 
but  after  they  get  well  down  to  the  Pacific,  spread  out  over  an  im- 
mense area  of  watery  highways  in  quest  of  piscatorial  food,  they  form 
the  most  helpless  of  their  kind  to  resist  or  elude  the  murderous 
teeth  and  carnivorous  attacks  of  basking  sharks  *  and  killer-whales,  f 

fatal  epidemic  among  seals.  It  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  Priby- 
lov rookeries  have  never  suffered  from  distempers  in  the  past,  or  are  not  to  in 
the  future,  simply  because  no  occasion  seems  to  have  arisen  during  the  com- 
paratively brief  period  of  their  human  domination. 

*  Somniows  microceplialus.  Some  of  these  sharks  are  of  very  large  size, 
and  when  caught  by  the  Indians  of  the  northwest  coast,  basking  or  asleep  on 
the  surface  of  the  sea,  they  will,  if  transfixed  by  the  natives'  harpoons,  take 
a  whole  fleet  of  canoes  in  tow  and  run  swiftly  with  them  several  hours  before 
exhaustion  enables  the  savages  to  finally  despatch  them.  A  Hudson  Bay 
trader,  William  Manson  (at  Fort  Alexander  in  1865),  told  me  that  his  father 
had  killed  one  in  the  smooth  waters  of  Millbank  Sound  which  measured 
twenty-four  feet  in  length,  and  its  liver  alone  yielded  thirty-six  gallons  of  oil. 
The  Somniosus  lies  motionless  for  long  intervals  in  calm  waters  of  the  North 
Pacific,  just  under  and  at  the  surface,  with  its  dorsal  fin  clearly  exposed  above. 
What  havoc  such  a  carnivorous  fish  would  be  likely  to  effect  in  a  "pod"  of 
young  fur-seals  can  be  better  imagined  than  described. 

f  Orca  gladiator.  While  revolving  this  particular  line  of  inquiry  in  my 
mind  when  on  the  ground  and  among  the  seals,  I  involuntarily  looked  con- 
stantly for  some  sign  of  disturbance  in  the  sea  which  would  indicate  the  pres- 
ence of  an  enemy,  and,  save  seeing  a  few  examples  of  the  Orca,  I  never  de- 
tected anything.  If  the  killer- whale  was  common  here,  it  would  be  patent  to 
the  most  casual  eye,  because  it  is  the  habit  of  this  ferocious  cetacean  to  swim 
so  closely  at  the  surface  as  to  show  its  peculiar  sharp  dorsal  fin  high  above  the 
water.  Possibly  a  very  superficial  observer  could  and  would  confound  that 
long  trenchant  fluke  of  the  Orca  with  the  stubby  node  upon  the  spine  of  a 
humpback  whale,  which  that  animal  exhibits  only  when  it  is  about  to  dive. 
Humpbacks  feed  around  the  islands,  but  not  commonly  ;  they  are  the  excep- 
tion. They  do  not,  however,  molest  the  seals  in  any  manner  whatever,  and 
little  squads  of  these  pinnipeds  seem  to  delight  themselves  by  swimming  in 
endless  circles  around  and  under  the  huge  bodies  of  those  whales,  frequently 
leaping  out  and  entirely  over  the  cetacean's  back,  as  witnessed  on  one  occasion 
by  myself  and  the  crew  of  the  Reliance  off  the  coast  of  Kadiak,  June,  1874. 


326  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

By  these  agencies,  during  their  absence  from  the  islands  until  their 
reappearance  in  the  following  year,  and  in  July,  they  are  so  percep- 
tibly diminished  in  number  that  I  do  not  think,  fairly  considered, 
more  than  one-half  of  the  legion  which  left  the  ground  of  their 
birth  last  October  come  up  the  next  July  to  these  favorite  landing- 
places— that  is,  only  250,000  of  them  return  out  of  the  500,000 
born  last  year.  The  same  statement  in  every  respect  applies  to  the 
going  and  the  coming  of  the  500,000  female  pups,  which  are  iden- 
tical in  size,  shape,  and  behavior. 

As  yearlings,  however,  these  250,000  survivors  of  last  year's 
birth  have  become  strong,  lithe,  and  active  swimmers,  and  when 
they  again  leave  the  hauling  grounds,  as  before,  in  the  fall,  they  are 
fully  as  able  as  are  the  older  class  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and 
when  they  reappear  next  year,  at  least  225,000  of  them  safely  return 
in  the  second  season  after  birth.  From  this  on  I  believe  that  they 
live  out  their  natural  lives  of  fifteen  to  twenty  years  each,  the  death- 
rate  now  caused  by  the  visitation  of  marine  enemies  affecting  them 
in  the  aggregate  but  slightly.  And,  again,  the  same  will  hold  good 
touching  the  females,  the  average  natural  life  of  which,  however,  I 
take  to  be  only  nine  or  ten  years  each. 

Out  of  these  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  young  males 
we  are  required  to  save  only  one-fifteenth  of  their  number  to  pass 
over  to  the  breeding-grounds,  and  meet  there  the  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  thousand  young  females ;  in  other  words,  the  polygamous 
habit  of  this  animal  is  such  that,  by  its  own  volition,  I  do  not  think 
that  more  than  one  male  annually  out  of  fifteen  born  is  needed  on 
the  breeding-grounds  in  the  future  ;  but  in  my  calculations,  to  be 
within  the  margin  and  to  make  sure  that  I  save  two-year-old  males 
enough  every  season,  I  will  more  than  double  this  proportion,  and 
set  aside  every  fifth  one  of  the  young  males  in  question.  That  will 
leave  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  seals,  in  good  condition, 
that  can  be  safely  killed  every  year,  without  the  slightest  injury  to 
the  perpetuation  of  the  stock  itself  forever  in  all  of  its  original 
integrity. 

In  the  above  showing  I  have  put  a  very  extreme  estimate 
upon  that  loss  sustained  at  sea  by  the  pup-seals — too  large,  I  am 
morally  certain  ;  but,  in  attempting  to  draw  this  line  safely,  I  wish 
to  place  the  matter  in  the  very  worst  light  in  which  it  can  be  put, 
and  to  give  the  seals  the  full  benefit  of  every  doubt.  Surely  I  have 
clearly  presented  the  case,  and  certainly  no  one  will  question  the 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  327 

premises  after  they  have  studied  the  habit  and  disposition  of  the 
rookeries  ;  hence,  it  is  a  positive  and  tenable  statement,  that  no 
danger  of  the  slightest  appreciable  degree  of  injury  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Government  on  the  Seal  Islands  of  Alaska  exists,  as  long 
as  the  present  law  protecting  it,  and  the  management  executing  it, 
continues. 

These  fur-seals  of  the  Pfibylov  group,  after  leaving  the  islands 
in  the  autumn  and  early  winter,  do  not  visit  land  again  until  the 
time  of  their  return,  in  the  following  spring  and  early  summer,  to 
these  same  rookery  and  hauling-grounds,  unless  they  touch,  as  they 
are  navigating  their  lengthened  journey  back,  at  the  Russian  Isl- 
ands, Copper  and  Bering,  seven  hundred  miles  to  the  westward  of 
the  Pribylov  group.  They  leave  our  islands  by  independent  squads, 
each  one  looking  out  for  itself.  Apparently  all  turn  by  common 
consent  to  the  south,  disappearing  toward  the  horizon,  and  are 
soon  lost  in  the  vast  expanse  below,  where  they  spread  themselves 
over  the  entire  Pacific  as  far  south  as  the  48th  and  even  the 
47th  parallels  of  north  latitude  :  within  this  immense  area  between 
Japan  and  Oregon,  doubtless,  many  extensive  submarine  fishing- 
shoals  and  banks  are  known  to  them  ;  at  least,  it  is  definitely 
understood  that  Bering  Sea  does  not  contain  them  long  when  they 
depart  from  the  breeding  rookeries  and  the  hauling-grounds  there- 
in. While  it  is  carried  in  mind  that  they  sleep  and  rest  in  the 
water  with  soundness  and  with  the  greatest  comfort  on  its  surface, 
and  that  even  when  around  the  land,  during  the  summer,  they 
frequently  put  off  from  the  beaches  to  take  a  bath  and  a  quiet 
snooze  just  beyond  the  surf,  we  can  readily  agree  that  it  is  no  in- 
convenience whatever,  when  the  reproductive  functions  have  been 
discharged,  and  their  coats  renewed,  for  them  to  stay  the  balance 
of  the  time  in  their  most  congenial  element — the  briny  deep. 

That  these  animals  are  preyed  upon  extensively  by  killer-whales 
(Orca  gladiator),  in  especial,  and  by  sharks,  and  probably  other 
submarine  foes  now  unknown,  is  at  once  evident ;  for,  were  they 
not  held  in  check  by  some  such  cause,  they  would,  as  they  exist 
to  day  on  St.  Paul,  quickly  multiply,  by  arithmetical  progression, 
to  so  great  an  extent  that  the  island,  nay,  Bering  Sea  itself,  could 
not  contain  them.  The  present  annual  killing  of  one  hundred  - 
thousand  out  of  a  yearly  total  of  over  a  million  males  does  not, 
in  an  appreciable  degree,  diminish  the  seal-life,  or  interfere  in 
the  slightest  with  its  regular,  sure  perpetuation  on  the  breeding- 


328  CUE  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

grounds  every  year.  We  may,  therefore,  properly  look  upon  this 
aggregate  of  four  and  five  millions  of  fur-seals,  as  we  see  them  every 
season  on  these  Pribylov  Islands,  as  that  maximum  limit  of  increase 
assigned  to  them  by  natural  law.  The  great  equilibrium  which 
nature  holds  in  life  upon  this  earth  must  be  sustained  at  St.  Paul 
as  well  as  elsewhere. 

Think  of  the  enormous  food-consumption  of  these  rookeries  and 
hauling-grounds  ;  what  an  immense  quantity  of  finny  prey  must 
pass  down  their  voracious  throats  as  every  year  rolls  by !  A  creature 
so  full  of  life,  strung  with  nerves,  muscles  like  bands  of  steel,  can- 
not live  on  air,  or  absorb  it  from  the  sea.  Their  food  is  fish,  to  the 
practical  exclusion  of  all  other  diet.  I  have  never  seen  them  touch, 
or  disturb  with  the  intention  of  touching  it,  one  solitary  example  in 
the  flocks  of  water-fowl  which  rest  upon  the  surface  of  the  water 
all  about  the  islands.  I  was  especially  careful  in  noting  this,  be- 
cause it  seemed  to  me  that  the  canine  armature  of  their  mouths 
must  suggest  flesh  for  food  at  times  as  well  as  fish  ;  but  fish  we 
know  they  eat.  Whole  windrows  of  the  heads  of  cod  and  wolf- 
fishes,  bitten  off  by  these  animals  at  the  nape,  were  washed  up  on 
the  south  shore  of  St.  George  during  a  gale  in  the  summer  of  1873. 
This  pelagic  decapitation  evidently  marked  the  progress  and  the 
appetite  of  a  band  of  fur-seals  to  the  windward  of  the  island,  as 
they  passsed  into  and  through  a  stray  school  of  these  fishes. 

How  many  pounds  per  diem  is  required  by  an  adult  seal,  and 
taken  by  it  when  feeding,  is  not  certain  in  my  mind.  Judging 
from  the  appetite,  however,  of  kindred  animals,  such  as  sea-lions 
fed  in  confinement  at  Woodward's  Gardens,  San  Francisco,  I  can 
safely  say  that  forty  pounds  for  a  full-grown  fur-seal  is  a  fair  allow- 
ance, with  at  least  ten  or  twelve  pounds  per  diem  to  every  adult 
female,  and  not  much  less,  if  any,  to  the  rapidly  growing  pups  and 
young  "holluschickie."  Therefore,  this  great  body  of  four  and 
five  millions  of  hearty,  active  animals  which  we  know  on  the  Seal 
Islands,  must  consume  an  enormous  amount  of  such  food  every 
'year.  They  cannot  average  less  than  ten  pounds  of  fish  per  diem, 
which  gives  the  consumption,  as  exhibited  by  their  appetite,  of  over 
six  million  tons  of  fish  every  year  !  What  wonder,  then,  that  nature 
should  do  something  to  hold  these  active  fishermen  in  check.* 


*  I  feel  confident  that  I  have  placed  this  average  of  fish  eaten  per  diem  by 
each  seal  at  a  starvation  allowance,  or,  in  other  words,  it  is  a  certain  minimum 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  329 

During  the  winter  solstice — between  the  lapse  of  the  autumnal 
and  the  verging  of  the  vernal  equinoxes — in  order  to  get  this  enor- 
mous food-supply,  the  fur-seals  are  necessarily  obliged  to  disperse 
over  a  very  large  area  of  fishing-ground,  ranging  throughout  the 
North  Pacific,  five  thousand  miles  across  between  Japan  and  the 
Straits  of  Fuca.  In  feeding,  they  are  brought  to  the  southward  all 
this  time  ;  and,  as  they  go,  they  come  more  and  more  in  contact 
with  those  natural  enemies  peculiar  to  the  sea  of  these  southern 


of  the  whole  consumption.  If  the  seals  can  get  double  the  quantity  which  I 
credit  them  with  above,  startling  as  it  seems,  still  I  firmly  believe  that  they  eat 
it  every  year.  An  adequate  realization  by  icthyologists  and  fishermen  as  to 
what  havoc  the  fur-seal  hosts  are  annually  making  among  the  cod,  herring, 
and  salmon  of  the  northwest  coast  and  Alaska,  would  disconcert  and  astonish 
them.  Happily  for  the  peace  of  political  economists  who  may  turn  their  at- 
tention to  the  settlement  and  growth  of  the  Pacific  coast  of  America,  it  bids 
fair  to  never  be  known  with  anything  like  precision.  The  fishing  of  man. 
both  aboriginal  and  civilized,  in  the  past,  present,  and  prospective,  has  never 
been,  is  not,  nor  will  it  be,  more  than  a  drop  in  the  bucket  contrasted  with  those 
piscatorial  labors  of  these  icthyophagi  in  the  waters  adjacent  to  their  birth. 
What  catholic  knowledge  of  fish  and  fishing-banks  any  one  of  those  old 
"  seecatchie "  must  possess,  which  we  observe  hauled  out  on  the  Pribylov 
rookeries  each  summer  !  It  has,  undoubtedly,  during  the  eighteen  or  twenty 
years  of  its  life,  explored  every  fish-eddy,  bank,  or  shoal  throughout  the 
whole  of  that  vast  immensity  of  the  North  Pacific  and  Bering  Sea.  It  has  had 
more  piscine  sport  in  a  single  twelvemonth  than  Izaak  Walton  had  in  his 
whole  life. 

An  old  sea-captain,  Dampier,  cruising  around  the  world  just  about  two 
hundred  years  ago,  wrote  diligently  thereof  (or,  rather,  one  Funnel  is  said  to 
have  written  for  him),  and  wrote  well  He  had  frequent  reference  to  meeting 
hair-seals  and  sea-lions,  fur-seals,  etc. ,  and  fell  into  repeating  this  maxim,  evi- 
dently of  his  own  making  :  "  For  wherever  there  be  plenty  of  fysh,  there  be 
seals."  I  am  sure  that,  unless  a  vast  abundance  of  good  fishing-ground  was 
near  by,  no  such  congregation  of  seal-life  as  is  that  under  discussion  on  the 
Seal  Islands  could  exist.  The  whole  eastern  half  of  Bering  Sea,  in  its  en- 
tirety, is  a  single  fish-spawning  bank,  nowhere  deeper  than  fifty  to  seventy-five 
fathoms,  averaging,  perhaps,  forty  ;  also,  there  are  great  reaches  of  fishing- 
shoals  up  and  down  the  northwest  coast,  from  and  above  the  Straits  of  Fuca, 
bordering  the  entire  southern,  or  Pacific  coast,  of  the  Aleutian  Islands.  The 
aggregate  of  cod,  herring,  and  salmon  which  the  seals  find  upon  these  vast 
icthyological  areas  of  reproduction,  must  be  simply  enormous,  and  fully  equal 
to  a  most  extravagant  demand  of  the  voracious  appetites  of  CaUorhini. 

When,  however,  the  fish  retire  from  spawning  here,  there,  and  everywhere 
over  these  shallows  of  Alaska  and  the  northwest  coast,  along  by  the  end  of 
September  to  the  1st  of  November,  every  year,  I  believe  that  the  young  fur- 


330  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

latitudes,  which  are  almost  strangers  and  are  really  unknown  to  the 
waters  of  Bering  Sea  ;  for  I  did  not  observe,  with  the  exception  of 
ten  or  twelve  perhaps,  certainly  no  more,  killer-whales,  a  single 
marine  disturbance,  or  molestation,  during  the  three  seasons  which 
I  passed  upon  the  islands,  that  could  be  regarded  in  the  slightest 
degree  inimical  to  the  peace  and  life  of  the  Pinnipedia  ;  and  thus, 
from  my  observation,  I  am  led  to  believe  that  it  is  not  until  they 
descend  well  to  the  south  of  the  Aleutian  Islands,  and  in  the  North 
Pacific,  that  they  meet  with  sharks  to  any  extent,  and  are  dimin- 
ished by  the  butchery  of  the  killer  whales. 

But  I  did  observe  a  very  striking  exhibition,  however,  of  this 
character  one  afternoon  while  looking  over  Lukannon  Bay.  I  saw 
a  "killer"  chasing  the  alert  "  holluschickie  "  out  beyond  the  break- 
ers, when  suddenly,  in  an  instant,  the  cruel  cetacean  was  turned 
toward  the  beach  in  hot  pursuit,  and  in  less  time  than  this  is  read 
the  ugly  brute  was  high  and  dry  upon  the  sands.  The  natives 
were  called,  and  a  great  feast  was  in  prospect  when  I  left  the  car- 
cass. 

But  this  was  the  only  instance  of  the  orca  in  pursuit  of  seals 
that  came  directly  under  my  observation  ;  hence,  though  it  does 
undoubtedly  capture  a  few  here  every  year,  yet  it  is  an  insignifi- 
cant cause  of  destruction,  on  account  of  its  rarity. 

The  young  fur-seals  going  out  to  sea  for  the  first  time,  and  fol- 
lowing in  the  wake  of  their  elders,  are  the  clumsy  members  of  the 
family.  When  they  go  to  sleep  on  the  surface  of  the  water,  they 
rest  much  sounder  than  the  others ;  and  their  alert  and  wary  na- 
ture, which  is  handsomely  developed  ere  they  are  two  seasons  old, 
is  in  its  infancy.  Hence,  I  believe  that  vast  numbers  of  them  are 
easily  captured  by  marine  foes,  as  they  are  stupidly  sleeping,  or 
awkwardly  fishing. 

I  must  not  be  understood  as  saying  that  fish  alone  constitute  the 
diet  of  the  Pribylov  pinnipeds  ;  I  know  that  they  feed,  to  a  limited 

seal,  in  following  them  into  the  depths  of  the  great  Pacific,  must  have  a  really 
arduous  struggle  for  existence — unless  it  knows  of  fishing-banks  unknown  to 
us.  The  yearlings,  however,  and  all  above  that  age,  are  endowed  with  suffi- 
cient muscular  energy  to  dive  rapidly  in  deep  soundings,  and  to  fish  with  un- 
doubted success.  The  pup,  however,  when  it  goes  to  sea,  five  or  six  months 
old,  is  not  lithe  and  sinewy  like  the  yearling  ;  it  is  podgy  and  fat,  a  compara- 
tively clumsy  swimmer,  and  does  not  develop,  I  believe,  into  a  good  fisherman 
until  it  has  become  pretty  well  starved  after  leaving  the  Pribylovs. 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  331 

extent,  upon  crustaceans  and  upon  the  squid  (Loligo),  also  eating 
tender  algoid  sprouts  ;  I  believe  that  the  pup-seals  live  for  the  first 
five  or  six  months  at  sea  largely,  if  not  wholly,  upon  crustaceans 
and  squids  ;  they  are  not  agile  enough,  in  my  opinion,  to  fish  suc- 
cessfully, in  any  great  degree,  when  they  first  depart  from  the 
rookeries. 

In  this  connection  I  wish  to  record  an  impression  very  strongly 
made  upon  my  mind,  in  regard  to  their  diverse  behavior  when 
out  at  sea  away  from  the  islands,  and  when  congregated  thereon. 
As  I  have  plainly  exhibited  in  the  foregoing,  they  are  practically 
without  fear  of  man  when  he  visits  them  on  the  land  of  their  birth 
and  recreation  ;  but  the  same  seal  that  noticed  you  with  quiet  in- 
difference at  St.  Paul,  in  June  and  July,  and  the  rest  of  the  season 
while  he  was  there,  or  gambolled  around  your  boat  when  you  rowed 
from  the  ship  to  shore,  as  a  dog  will  play  about  your  horses  when 
you  drive  from  the  gate  to  the  house,  that  same  seal,  when  you 
meet  him  in  one  of  the  passes  of  the  Aleutian  chain,  one  hundred 
or  two  hundred  miles  away  from  here,  as  the  case  may  be,  or  to  the 
southward  of  that  archipelago,  is  the  shyest  and  wariest  creature 
your  ingenuity  can  define.  Happy  are  you  in  getting  but  a  single 
glimpse  of  him,  first ;  you  will  never  see  him  after,  until  he  hauls 
out,  and  winks  and  blinks  across  Lukannon  sands. 

But  the  companionship  and  the  exceeding  number  of  the  seals, 
when  assembled  together  annually,  makes  them  bold  ;  largely  due, 
perhaps,  to  their  fine  instinctive  understanding,  dating,  probably, 
back  many  years,  seeming  to  know  that  man,  after  all,  is  not  wan- 
tonly destroying  them  ;  and  what  he  takes,  he  only  takes  from  the 
ravenous  maw  of  the  killer-whale  or  the  saw-tipped  teeth  of  the 
Japan  shark.  As  they  sleep  in  the  water,  off  the  Straits  of  Fuca, 
and  the  northwest  coast  as  far  as  Dixon's  Sound,  the  Indians  be- 
longing to  that  region  surprise  them  with  spears  and  rifle,  captur- 
ing quite  a  number  every  year,  chiefly  pups  and  yearlings. 

When  fur-seals  were  noticed,  by  myself,  far  away  from  these 
islands,  at  sea,  I  observed  that  then  they  were  as  shy  and  as  wary 
as  the  most  timorous  animal  would  be,  in  dreading  man's  prox- 
imity— sinking  instantly  on  apprehending  the  approach  or  pres- 
ence of  the  ship,  seldom  to  reappear  to  my  gaze.  But,  when 
gathered  in  such  immense  numbers  at  the  Pribylov  Islands,  they 
are  suddenly  metamorphosed  into  creatures  wholly  indifferent  to 
my  person.  It  must  cause  a  very  curious  sentiment  in  the  mind  of 


332  OUR   AECTIC   PROVINCE. 

him  who  comes  for  the  first  time,  during  a  summer  season,  to  the 
Island  of  St.  Paul — where,  when  the  landing  boat  or  lighter  carries 
him  ashore  from  the  vessel,  this  whole  short  marine  journey  is  en- 
livened by  the  gambols  and  aquatic  evolutions  of  fur-seal  convoys 
to  the  "  bidarrah,"  which  sport  joyously  and  fearlessly  round  and 
round  his  craft,  as  she  is  rowed  lustily  ahead  by  the  natives ;  the 
fur-seals  then,  of  all  classes,  "  holluschickie  "  principally,  pop  their 
dark  heads  up  out  of  the  sea,  rising  neck  and  shoulders  erect  above 
the  surface,  to  peer  and  ogle  at  him  and  at  his  boat,  diving  quickly 
to  reappear  just  ahead  or  right  behind,  hardly  beyond  striking  dis- 
tance from  the  oars.  These  gymnastics  of  Callorhinus  are  not  wholly 
performed  thus  in  silence,  for  it  usually  snorts  and  chuckles  with 
hearty  reiteration. 

The  sea-lion  up  here  also  manifest  much  the  same  marine  in- 
terest, and  gives  the  voyager  an  exhibition  quite  similar  to  the  one 
which  I  have  just  spoken  of,  when  a  small  boat  is  rowed  in  the 
neighborhood  of  its  shore  rookery  ;  it  is  not,  however,  so  bold,  con- 
fident, and  social  as  the  fur-seal  under  the  circumstances,  and  utters 
only  a  short,  stifled  growl  of  surprise,  perhaps  ;  its  mobility,  how- 
ever, of  vocalization  is  sadly  deficient  when  compared  with  the  scope 
and  compass  of  its  valuable  relative's  polyglottis. 

The  hair-seals  (Phoca  vitulina)  around  these  islands  never  ap- 
proached our  boats  in  this  manner,  and  I  seldom  caught  more  than 
a  furtive  glimpse  of  their  short,  bull-dog  heads  when  traversing  the 
coast  by  water. 

The  walrus  (Eosmarus  obesus)  also,  like  Phoca  vitulina,  gave  un- 
doubted evidence  of  sore  alarm  over  the  presence  of  my  boat  and 
crew  anywhere  near  its  proximity  in  similar  situations,  only  show- 
ing itself  once  or  twice,  perhaps,  at  a  safe  distance,  by  elevating 
nothing  but  the  extreme  tip  of  its  muzzle  and  its  bleared,  popping 
eyes  above  the  water ;  it  uttered  no  sound  except  a  dull,  muffled 
grunt,  or  else  a  choking,  gurgling  bellow. 

What  can  be  done  to  promote  the  increase  of  fur  seals?  We 
cannot  cause  a  greater  number  of  females  to  be  born  every  year 
than  are  born  now  ;  we  do  not  touch  or  disturb  these  females  as 
they  grow  up  and  live  ;  and  we  never  will,  if  the  law  and  present 
management  is  continued.  We  save  double — we  save  more  than 
enough  males  to  serve  ;  nothing  more  can  be  done  by  human  agency ; 
it  is  beyond  our  power  to  protect  them  from  their  deadly  marine 
enemies  as  they  wander  into  the  boundless  ocean  searching  for  food. 


*   -a 
S  1 

P    s 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  333 

In  view,  therefore,  of  all  these  facts,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  say- 
ing, quite  confidently,  that  under  the  present  rules  and  regulations 
governing  the  sealing  interests  on  these  islands,  the  increase  or 
diminution  of  the  seal-life  thereon  will  amount  to  nothing  in  the 
future  ;  that  the  seals  will  exist,  as  they  do  exist,  in  all  time  to 
come  at  about  the  same  number  and  condition  recorded  by  this 
presentation  of  the  author. 

By  reference  to  the  habit  of  the  fur-seal,  which  I  have  discussed 
at  length,  it  is  now  plain  and  beyond  doubt  that  two-thirds  of  all 
the  males  which  are  born,  and  they  are  equal  in  numbers  to  the 
females  born,  are  never  permitted  by  the  remaining  third,  strong- 
est by  natural  selection,  to  land  upon  the  same  breeding-ground 
with  the  females,  which  always  herd  thereupon  en  masse.  Hence 
this  great  band  of  "bachelor"  seals,  or  "holluschickie,"  so  fitly 
termed,  when  it  visits  the  island,  is  obliged  to  live  apart  wholly — 
sometimes  and  in  some  places,  miles  away  from  the  rookeiies ;  and, 
by  this  admirable  method  of  nature  are  those  seals  which  can  be 
killed  without  injury  to  the  rookeries  selected  and  held  aside  of 
their  own  volition,  so  that  the  natives  can  visit  and  take  them  with- 
out disturbing,  to  the  least  degree,  that  entire  quiet  of  those  breed- 
ing-grounds where  the  stock  is  perpetuated. 

The  manner  in  which  the  natives  capture  and  drive  up  "  hollu- 
schickie "  from  the  hauling-grounds  to  the  slaughter-fields  near  the 
two  villages  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  George,  and  elsewhere  on  the  isl- 
ands, cannot  be  improved  upon.  It  is  in  this  way  :  At  the  begin- 
ning of  every  sealing-season,  that  is,  during  May  and  June,  large 
bodies  of  the  young  "  bachelor  "  seals  do  not  haul  up  on  land  very 
far  from  the  water — a  few  rods  at  the  most — and,  when  these  first 
arrivals  are  sought  after,  the  natives,  to  capture  them,  are  obliged 
to  approach  slyly  and  run  quickly  between  the  dozing  seals  and  the 
surf,  before  they  can  take  alarm  and  bolt  into  the  sea  ;  in  this  man- 
ner a  dozen  Aleutes,  running  down  the  sand  beach  of  English  Bay, 
in  the  early  morning  of  some  June  day,  will  turn  back  from  the 
water  thousands  of  seals,  just  as  the  mould-board  of  a  plough  lays 
over  and  back  a  furrow  of  earth.  When  the  sleeping  seals  are  first 
startled,  they  arise,  and,  seeing  men  between  them  and  the  water, 
immediately  turn,  lope  and  scramble  rapidly  back  up  and  over  the 
land  ;  the  natives  then  leisurely  walk  on  the  flanks  and  in  the  rear 
of  this  drove  thus  secured,  directing  and  driving  it  over  to  the  kill- 
ing-grounds, close  by  the  village.  The  task  of  getting  up  early  of 


334  OUR   AECTIC   PROVINCE. 

a  morning,  and  going  out  to  the  several  hauling-grounds,  closely 
adjacent,  is  really  all  there  is  of  that  labor  expended  in  securing  the 
number  of  seals  required  for  a  day's  work  on  the  killing-grounds. 
The  two,  three,  or  four  natives  upon  whom,  in  rotation,  this  duty  is 
devolved  by  the  order  of  their  chief,  rise  at  first  glimpse  of  dawn, 
between  one  and  two  o'clock,  and  hasten  over  to  Lukannon,  Tol- 
stoi, or  Zoltoi,  as  the  case  may  be,  "  walk  out "  their  "  holluschic- 
kie,"  and  have  them  duly  on  the  slaughtering  field  before  six  or  seven 
o'clock,  as  a  rule,  in  the  morning.  In  favorable  weather  the  "  drive" 
from  Tolstoi  consumes  from  two  and  a  half  to  three  hours'  time  ; 
from  Lukannon,  about  two  hours,  and  is  often  done  in  an  hour  and 
a  half ;  while  Zoltoi  is  so  near  by  that  the  time  is  merely  nominal. 

A  drove  of  seals  on  hard  or  firm  grassy  ground,  in  cool  and  moist 
weather,  may  be  driven  with  safety  at  the  rate  of  half  a  mile  an 
hour ;  they  can  be  urged  along,  with  the  expenditure  of  a  great 
many  lives,  however,  at  the  speed  of  a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  quarter 
per  hour  ;  but  that  is  seldom  done.  An  old  bull-seal,  fat  and  un- 
wieldy, cannot  travel  with  the  younger  ones,  though  it  can  lope  or 
gallop  as  it  starts  across  the  ground  as  fast  as  an  ordinary  man  can 
run,  over  one  hundred  yards — then  it  fails  utterly,  falls  to  the  earth 
supine,  entirely  exhausted,  hot,  and  gasping  for  breath. 

The  "  holluschickie  "  are  urged  along  over  paths  leading  to 
the  killing-ground  with  very  little  trouble,  and  require  only  three 
or  four  men  to  guide  and  secure  as  many  thousand  at  a  time.  They 
are  permitted  frequently  to  halt  and  cool  off,  as  heating  them  in- 
jures their  fur.  These  seal-halts  on  the  road  always  impressed  me 
with  a  species  of  sentimentalism  and  regard  for  the  creatures  them- 
selves. When  the  men  drop  back  for  a  few  moments,  that  awk- 
ward shambling  and  scuffling  of  the  march  at  once  ceases,  and  the 
seals  stop  in  their  tracks  to  fan  themselves  with  their  hind  flippers, 
while  their  heaving  flanks  give  rise  to  subdued  panting  sounds.  As 
soon  as  they  apparently  cease  to  gasp  for  want  of  breath,  and  are 
cooled  off  comparatively,  the  natives  step  up  once  more,  clatter  a 
few  bones,  with  a  shout  along  the  line,  and  this  seal-shamble  begins 
again — their  march  to  death  and  the  markets  of  the  world  is  taken 
up  anew.* 

*  I  heard  a  great  deal  of  talk  among  the  white  residents  of  St.  Paul,  when  I 
first  landed  and  the  sealing-season  opened,  about  the  necessity  of  "  resting"  the 
hauling-grounds ;  in  other  words,  they  said  if  the  seals  were  driven  in  re- 
peated daily  rotation  from  any  one  of  the  hauling-grounds,  that  this  would  so 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  335 

I  was  also  impressed  by  the  singular  docility  and  amiability  of 
these  animals  when  driven  along  the  road.  They  never  show  fight 
any  more  than  a  flock  of  sheep  would  do  ;  if,  however,  a  few  old 
seals  get  mixed  in,  they  usually  grow  so  weary  that  they  prefer  to 
come  to  a  stand-still  and  fight  rather  than  move  ;  otherwise  no 
sign  whatever  of  resistance  is  made  by  the  drove  from  the  moment 
it  is  intercepted,  and  turned  up  from  the  hauling-grounds,  to  the 
time  of  its  destruction  at  the  hands  of  the  sealing-gang. 

This  disposition  of  the  old  seals  to  fight  rather  than  endure  the 
panting  torture  of  travel,  is  of  great  advantage  to  all  parties  con- 
cerned, for  they  are  worthless  commercially,  and  the  natives  are 
only  too  glad  to  let  them  drop  behind,  where  they  remain  unmo- 
lested, eventually  returning  to  the  sea.  The  fur  on  them  is  of  lit- 
tle or  no  value  ;  their  under- wool  being  very  much  shorter,  coarser, 
and  more  scant  than  in  the  younger  ;  especially  so  on  the  posterior 
parts  along  the  median  line  of  the  back. 

This  change  for  the  worse  or  deterioration  of  the  pelage  of  the 

disturb  these  animals  as  to  prevent  their  coming  to  any  extent  again  thereon, 
during  the  rest  of  the  season.  This  theory  seemed  rational  enough  to  me  at 
the  beginning  of  my  investigations,  and  I  was  not  disposed  to  question  its 
accuracy  ;  but  subseqent  observation  directed  to  this  point  particularly  satis- 
fied me,  and  the  sealers  themselves  with  whom  I  was  associated,  that  the  driv- 
ing of  the  seals  had  no  effect  whatever  upon  the  hauling  which  took  place 
soon  or  immediately  after  the  field,  for  the  hour,  had  been  swept  clean  of  seals 
by  the  drivers.  If  the  weather  was  favorable  for  landing,  i.  e.,  cool,  moist, 
and  foggy,  the  fresh  hauling  of  the  ' '  holluschickie ''  would  cover  the  bare 
grounds  again  in  a  very  short  space  of  time  :  sometimes  in  a  few  hours  after  the 
driving  of  every  seal  from  Zoltoi  sands  over  to  the  killing-fields  adjacent,  those 
dunes  and  the  beach  in  question  would  be  swarming  anew  with  fresh  arrivals. 
If,  however,  the  weather  is  abnormally  warm  and  sunny,  during  its  prevalence, 
even  if  for  several  consecutive  days,  no  seals  to  speak  of  will  haul  out  on  the 
emptied  space  ;  indeed,  if  these  "holluschickie"  had  not  been  taken  away  by 
man  from  Zoltoi  or  any  other  hauling-ground  on  the  islands  when  "  tayopli  " 
weather  prevailed,  most  of  those  seals  would  have  vacated  their  terrestrial 
loafing  places  for  the  cooler  embraces  of  the  sea. 

The  importance  of  clearly  understanding  this  fact  as  to  the  readiness  of 
the  "holluschickie"  to  haul  promptly  out  on  steadily  "swept"  ground,  pro- 
vided the  weather  is  inviting,  is  very  great  ;  because,  when  not  understood,  it 
was  deemed  necessary,  even  as  late  as  the  season  of  1872,  to  "rest"  the 
hauling-grounds  near  the  village  (from  which  all  the  driving  has  been 
made  since),  and  make  trips  to  far-away  Polavina  and  distant  Zapadnie — an 
unnecessary  expenditure  of  human  time,  and  a  causeless  infliction  of  physical 
misery  upon  phocine  backs  and  flippers. 


336  OUR  AECTIC   PROVINCE. 

fur-seal  takes  place,  as  a  rule,  in  the  fifth  year  of  their  age — it  is 
thickest  and  finest  in  texture  during  the  third  and  fourth  year  of 
life  ;  hence,  in  driving  the  seals  on  St.  Paul  and  St.  George  up 
from  the  hauling-grounds  the  natives  make,  as  far  as  practicable,  a 
selection  only  from  males  of  that  age.  It  is  quite  impossible,  how- 
ever, to  get  them  all  of  one  age  without  an  extraordinary  amount  of 
stir  and  bustle,  which  the  Aleutes  do  not  like  to  precipitate  ;  hence 
the  drive  will  be  found  to  consist  usually  of  a  bare  majority  of 
three  and  four-year-olds,  the  rest  being  two-year-olds  principally, 
and  a  very  few,  at  wide  intervals,  five-year-olds,  the  yearlings  sel- 
dom ever  getting  mixed  up  in  it. 

As  this  drove  progresses  along  that  path  to  those  slaughtering- 
grounds,  the  seals  all  move  in  about  the  same  way  ;  they  go  ahead 
with  a  kind  of  walking  step  and  a  sliding,  shambling  gallop.  The 
progression  of  the  "whole  caravan  is  a  succession  of  starts,  spas- 
modic and  irregular,  made  every  few  minutes,  the  seals  pausing  to 
catch  their  breath,  making,  as  it  were,  a  plaintive  survey  and 
mute  protest.  Every  now  and  then  a  seal  will  get  weak  in  the 
lumbar  region,  then  drag  its  posteriors  along  for  a  short  distance, 
finally  drop  breathless  and  exhausted,  quivering  and  panting,  not 
to  revive  for  hours — days,  perhaps — and  often  never.  During  the 
driest  driving-days,  or  those  days  when  the  temperature  does  not 
combine  with  wet  fog  to  keep  the  earth  moist  and  cool,  quite  a 
large  number  of  the  weakest  animals  in  the  drove  will  be  thus  laid 
out  and  left  on  the  track.  If  one  of  these  prostrate  seals  is  not  too 
much  heated  at  the  time,  the  native  driver  usually  taps  the  beast 
over  the  head  and  removes  its  skin. 

This  prostration  from  exertion  will  always  happen,  no  matter 
how  carefully  they  are  driven  ;  and  in  the  longer  drives,  such  as 
two  and  a  half  and  five  miles  from  Zapadnie  on  the  west,  or  Pola- 
vina  on  the  north,  to  the  village  at  St.  Paul,  as  much  as  three  or 
four  per  cent,  of  the  whole  drive  will  be  thus  dropped  on  the  road  ; 
hence  I  feel  satisfied,  from  my  observation  and  close  attention  to 
this  feature,  that  a  considerable  number  of  those  that  are  thus  re- 
jected from  the  drove,  and  are  able  to  rally  and  return  to  the  water, 
die  subsequently  from  internal  injuries  sustained  on  the  trip, 
superinduced  by  this  over-exertion.  I  therefore  think  it  highly 
improper  and  impolitic  to  extend  drives  of  the  '•  holluschickie  " 
over  any  distance  on  St.  Paul  Island  exceeding  a  mile,  or  a  mile 
and  a  half — it  is  better  for  all  parties  concerned,  and  the  business 


?  l 


AMPHIBIAN    MILLIONS.  337 

too,  that  salt-houses  be  erected,  and  killing-grounds  established 
contiguous  to  all  of  the  great  hauling-grounds,  two  miles  dis- 
tant from  the  village  on  St.  Paul  Island,  should  the  business  ever 
be  developed  above  the  present  limit,  or  should  the  exigencies  of 
the  future  require  a  quota  from  all  these  places  in  order  to  make 
up  the  hundred  thousand  which  may  be  lawfully  taken. 

As  matters  are  to-day,  one  hundred  thousand  seals  alone  on  St. 
Paul  can  be  taken  and  skinned  in  less  than  forty  working  days, 
within  a  radius  of  one  mile  and  a  half  from  the  village,  and  from 
the  salt-house  at  Northeast  Point ;  hence  the  driving,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  two  experimental  droves  which  I  witnessed  in  1872,  has 
never  been  made  from  longer  distances  than  Tolstoi  to  the  east- 
ward, Lukannon  to  the  northward,  and  Zoltoi  to  the  southward  of 
the  killing-grounds  at  St.  Paul  village.  Should,  however,  an  ab- 
normal season  recur,  in  which  the  larger  portion  of  days  during 
the  right  period  for  taking  the  skins  be  warmish  and  dry,  it  might 
be  necessary,  in  order  to  get  even  seventy-five  thousand  seals  with- 
in the  twenty-eight  or  thirty  days  of  their  prime  condition,  for 
drives  to  be  made  from  the  other  great  hauling-grounds  to  the 
westward  and  northward,  which  are  now,  and  have  been  for  the 
last  ten  years,  entirely  unnoticed  by  our  sealers.* 

The  seals,  when  finally  driven  up  on  those  flats  between  the  east 
landing  and  the  village,  and  almost  under  the  windows  of  the 
dwellings,  are  herded  there  until  cool  and  rested.  Such  drives  are 
usually  made  very  early  in  the  morning,  at  the  first  breaking  of 
day,  which  is  half -past  one  to  two  o'clock  of  June  and  July  in  these 
latitudes.  They  arrive,  and  cool  off  on  the  slaughtering-grounds, 

*  The  fur-seal,  like  all  of  the  pinnipeds,  has  no  sweat-glands  ;  hence,  when 
it  is  heated,  it  cools  off  by  the  same  process  of  panting  which  is  so  character- 
istic of  the  dog,  accompanied  by  the  fanning  that  I  have  hitherto  fully  de- 
scribed ;  the  heavy  breathing  and  low  grunting  of  a  tired  drove  of  seals,  on  a 
warmer  day  than  usual,  can  be  heard  several  hundred  yards  away.  It  is  sur- 
prising how  quickly  the  hair  and  fur  will  come  out  of  the  skin  of  a  blood- 
heated  seal— literally  rubs  bodily  o£f  at  a  touch  of  the  finger.  A  fine  speci- 
men of  a  three-year-old  "  holluschak ''  fell  in  its  tracks  at  the  head  of  the 
lagoon  while  being  driven  to  the  village  killing-grounds.  I  asked  that  it  be 
skinned  with  special  reference  to  mounting  ;  accordingly  a  native  was  sent  for, 
who  was  on  the  spot,  knife  in  hand,  within  less  than  thirty  minutes  from  the 
moment  that  this  seal  fell  in  the  road,  yet  soon  after  he  had  got  fairly  to  work 
patches  of  the  fur  and  hair  came  off  here  and  there  wherever  he  chanced  to 
clutch  the  skin. 


338 


OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 


so  that  by  six  or  seven  o'clock,  after  breakfast,  the  able-bodied  male 
population  turn  out  from  the  village  and  go  down  to  engage  in  the 
work  of  killing  them.  These  men  are  dressed  in  their  ordinary  labor- 
ing-garb of  thick  flannel  shirts,  stout  cassimere  or  canvas  pants, 
over  which  the  "  tarbossar  "  boots  are  drawn.  If  it  rains  they  wear 


Peter  Peeshenkov  :    Pribylov  Sealer. 
[Attired  in  the  costume  of  the  killing  gang,  when  at  work  in  wet  weather.} 

their  "kamlaykas,"  made  of  the  intestines  and  throats  of  the  sea- 
lion  and  fur-seal.  Thus  dressed,  they  are  each  armed  with  a  club, 
a  stout  oaken  or  hickory  bludgeon,  which  has  been  made  particu- 
larly for  the  purpose  at  New  London,  Conn.,  and  imported  here 
for  this  especial  service.  Those  sealing-clubs  are  about  five  or 
six  feet  in  length,  three  inches  in  diameter  at  their  heads,  and 
the  thickness  of  a  man's  forearm  where  they  are  grasped  by  the 


11 


t- 

ll 


si 


h  « 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  339 

bands.  Each  native  also  has  his  stabbing-knife,  his  skimmig-knife 
and  his  whetstone  :  these  are  laid  upon  the  grass  convenient,  when 
the  work  of  braining  or  knocking  the  seals  down  is  in  progress : 
this  is  all  the  apparatus  which  they  employ  for  killing  and  skinning. 

When  the  men  gather  for  work  they  are  under  the  control  of 
their  chosen  foremen  or  chiefs  ;  usually,  on  St.  Paul,  divided  into 
two  working  parties  at  the  village,  and  a  sub-party  at  North- 
east Point,  where  another  salt-house  and  slaughtering-field  is 
established.  At  the  signal  of  the  chief  the  labor  of  the  day  begins 
by  the  men  stepping  into  that  drove  corralled  on  the  flats  and  driv- 
ing out  from  it  one  hundred  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  seals  at  a 
time,  making  what  they  call  a  "pod,"  which  they  surround  in  a 
circle,  huddling  the  seals  one  on  another  as  they  narrow  it  down,  until 
they  are  directly  within  reach  and  under  their  clubs.  Then  the  chief, 
after  he  has  cast  his  experienced  eye  over  the  struggling,  writhing 
"  kautickie  "  in  the  centre,  passes  the  word  that  such  and  such  a 
seal  is  bitten,  that  such  and  such  a  seal  is  too  young,  that  such  and 
such  a  seal  is  too  old  ;  the  attention  of  his  men  being  called  to 
these  points,  he  gives  the  word  "  Strike !  "  and  instantly  the  heavy 
clubs  come  down  all  around,  and  every  animal  eligible  is  stretched 
out  stunned  and  motionless,  in  less  time,  really,  than  I  take  to  tell 
it.  Those  seals  spared  by  order  of  the  chief  now  struggle  from 
under  and  over  the  bodies  of  their  insensible  companions  and  pass, 
hustled  off  by  the  natives,  back  to  the  sea. 

The  clubs  are  dropped,  the  men  seize  the  prostrate  seals  by  the 
hind  flippers  and  drag  them  out  so  they  are  spread  on  the  ground 
without  touching  each  other,  then  every  sealer  takes  his  knife  and 
drives  it  into  the  heart  at  a  point  between  the  fore  flippers  of  each 
stunned  form  ;  its  blood  gushes  forth,  and  the  quivering  of  the 
animal  presently  ceases.  A  single  stroke  of  a  heavy  oak  bludgeon, 
well  and  fairly  delivered,  will  crush  in  at  once  the  slight,  thin  bones 
of  a  fur-seal's  skull,  and  lay  the  creature  out  almost  lifeless.  These 
blows  are,  however,  usually  repeated  two  or  three  times  with  each 
animal,  but  they  are  very  quickly  done.  The  bleeding,  which  is 
immediately  effected,  is  so  speedily  undertaken  in  order  that  the 
strange  reaction,  which  the  sealers  call  "  heating,"  shall  be  delayed 
for  hah*  -an  hour  or  so,  or  until  the  seals  can  all  be  drawn  out  and 
laid  in  some  disposition  for  skinning. 

I  have  noticed  that  within  less  than  thirty  minutes  from  the 
time  a  perfectly  sound  seal  was  knocked  down,  it  had  so  "  heated," 


340  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

owing  to  the  day  being  warmer  and  drier  than  usual,  that,  when 
touching  it  with  my  foot,  great  patches  of  hair  and  fur  scaled  off. 
This  is  rather  exceptionally  rapid  metamorphosis — it  will,  however, 
take  place  in  every  instance,  within  an  hour,  or  an  hour  and  a  half 
on  these  warm  days,  after  the  first  blow  is  struck,  and  the  seal  is 
quiet  in  death ;  hence  no  time  is  lost  by  a  prudent  toyone  in  di- 
recting the  removal  of  the  skins  as  rapidly  as  the  seals  are  knocked 
down  and  dragged  out.  If  it  is  a  cool  day,  after  bleeding  the  first 
"pod"  which  has  been  prostrated  in  the  manner  described,  and 
after  carefully  drawing  the  slain  from  the  heap  in  which  they  have 
fallen,  so  that  the  bodies  will  spread  over  the  ground  just  free 
from  touching  one  another,  they  turn  to  and  strike  down  another 
"  pod  ; "  and  so  on,  until  a  whole  thousand  or  two  are  laid  out,  or 
the  drove,  as  corralled,  is  finished.  The  day,  however,  must  be  raw 
and  cold  for  this  wholesale  method.  Then,  after  killing,  they  turn 
to  work  and  skin  ;  but  if  it  is  a  warm  day  every  pod  is  skinned  as 
soon  as  it  is  knocked  down. 

The  labor  of  skinning  is  exceedingly  severe,  and  is  trying  even 
to  an  expert,  demanding  long  practice  ere  the  muscles  of  the  back 
and  thighs  are  so  developed  as  to  permit  a  man  to  bend  down  to, 
and  finish  well,  a  fair  day's  work.  The  knives  used  by  the  natives 
for  skinning  are  ordinary  kitchen  or  case-handle  butcher-knives. 
They  are  sharpened  to  cutting  edges  as  keen  as  razors,  but  some- 
thing about  the  skins  of  the  seal,  perhaps  fine  comminuted  sand 
along  the  abdomen,  so  dulls  these  knives,  as  the  natives  work,  that 
they  are  obliged  to  whet  them  constantly. 

The  body  of  the  seal,  preparatory  to  skinning,  is  rolled  over 
and  balanced  squarely  on  its  back  ;  then  the  native  makes  a  single 
swift  cut  through  the  skin  down  along  the  neck,  chest,  and  belly, 
from  the  lower  jaw  to  the  root  of  the  tail :  he  uses  for  this  purpose 
his  long  stabbing-knife.*  The  fore  and  hind  flippers  are  then  suc- 
cessively lifted,  as  the  man  straddles  a  seal  and  stoops  down  to 

*  When  turning  the  stunned  and  senseless  carcasses,  the  only  physical  dan- 
ger of  which  the  sealers  run  the  slightest  risk,  during  the  whole  circuit  of 
their  work,  occurs  thus :  at  this  moment  the  prone  and  quivering  body  of  the 
"  holluschak"  is  not  wholly  inert,  perhaps,  though  it  is  nine  times  out  of  ten; 
and  as  the  native  takes  hold  of  a  fore  flipper  to  jerk  the  carcass  over  on  to  its 
back,  the  half -brained  seal  rouses,  snaps  suddenly  and  viciously,  often  biting 
the  hands  or  legs  of  unwary  skinners  :  they  then  come  leisurely  and  uncon- 
•ernedly  up  into  the  surgeon's  office  at  the  village,  for  bandages,  etc.  A  few 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  341 

his  work  over  it,  and  a  sweeping  circular  incision  is  made  through 
the  skin  on  them  just  at  the  point  where  the  body-fur  ends  ;  then, 
seizing  a  flap  of  the  hide  on  either  one  side  or  the  other  of  the 
abdomen,  the  man  proceeds  with  his  smaller,  shorter  butcher-knife, 

men  are  bitten  every  day  or  two  during  the  season  on  the  islands,  in  this  man- 
ner, but  I  have  never  learned  of  any  serious  result  following  any  case. 

The  sealers,  as  might  be  expected,  become  exceedingly  expert  in  keeping 
their  knives  sharp,  putting  edges  on  them  as  keen  as  razors,  and  in  an  instant 
detect  any  dulness  by  passing  the  balls  of  their  thumbs  over  the  suspected 
edges  to  such  blades. 

The  white  sealers  of  the  Antarctic  always  used  an  orthodox  butcher's 
11  steel"  in  sharpening  their  knives,  but  these  natives  never  have,  and  prob- 
ably never  will  abandon  those  little  whetstones  above  referred  to. 

During  the  Russian  management,  and  throughout  the  strife  in  killing  by 
our  own  people  in  1868,  a  very  large  number  of  the  skins  were  cut  through, 
here  and  there,  by  the  slipping  of  the  natives'  knives,  when  they  were  taking 
them  from  the  carcasses,  and  "flensing"  them  from  the  superabundance,  in 
spots,  of  blubber.  These  knife-cuts  through  the  skin,  no  matter  how  slight, 
give  great  annoyance  to  the  dresser,  hence  they  are  always  marked  down  in 
price.  The  prompt  scrutiny  of  each  skin  on  the  islands  by  an  agent  of  the 
Alaska  Commercial  Company,  who  rejects  every  one  of  them  thus  injured,  has 
caused  the  natives  to  exercise  greater  care,  and  the  number  now  so  damaged, 
every  season,  is  absolutely  trifling. 

Another  source  of  small  loss  is  due  to  a  habit  which  the  "  holluschickie  " 
have  of  occasionally  biting  each  other  when  they  are  being  urged  along  in 
the  drives,  and  thus  crowded  once  in  a  while  one  upon  the  other.  Usually 
these  examples  of  "zoobaden"  are  detected  by  the  natives  prior  to  the 
"knocking  down,"  and  spared;  yet  those  which  have  been  nipped  on  the 
chest  or  abdomen  cannot  be  thus  noticed,  and,  until  the  skin  is  lifted,  the 
damage  is  not  apprehended. 

The  aim  and  force  with  which  the  native  directs  his  blow  determines  the 
death  of  a  fur-seal.  If  struck  direct  and  violently,  a  single  stroke  is  enough. 
The  seals'  heads  are  stricken  so  hard  sometimes  that  those  crystalline  lenses  to 
their  eyes  fly  out  from  the  orbital  sockets  like  hail-stones,  or  little  pebbles,  and 
frequently  struck  me  sharply  in  the  face,  or  elsewhere,  while  I  stood  near  by 
watching  a  killing-gang  at  work. 

A  singular  lurid  green  light  suddenly  suffuses  the  eye  of  a  fur-seal  at 
intervals  when  it  is  very  much  excited  ;  as  the  "podding"  for  the  clubbers 
is  in  progress  and  at  the  moment  when  last  raising  its  head  it  sees  the  uplifted 
bludgeons  on  every  hand  above,  fear  seems  then  for  the  first  time  to  possess  it 
and  to  instantly  gild  its  eye  in  this  strange  manner.  When  the  seal  is  brained 
in  this  state  of  optical  coloration  I  have  noticed  that  the  opalescent  tinting  re- 
mained well  defined  for  many  hours  or  a  whole  day  after  death.  These  re- 
markable flashes  are  very  characteristic  to  the  eyes  of  the  old  males  during 
their  hurly-burly  on  the  rookeries,  but  never  appear  in  the  younger  classes 
unless  as  just  described,  as  far  as  I  could  observe. 


342 


OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 


rapidly  to  cut  the  skin,  clean  and  free  from  the  body  and  blubber, 
which  he  rolls  over  and  out  from  the  hide  by  hauling  up  on  it  as  he 
advances  with  his  work,  standing  all  this  time  stooped  over  the 
carcass  so  that  his  hands  are  but  slightly  above  it,  or  the  ground. 
This  operation  of  skinning  a  fair-sized  "  holluschak  "  takes  the 
best  men  only  one  minute  and  a  half,  but  the  average  time  made 
by  the  gang  on  the  ground  is  about  four  minutes  to  the  seaL 


The  Carcass  after  Skinning — The  Skin  as  taken  therefrom. 

Nothing  is  left  of  the  skin  upon  the  carcass,  save  a  small  patch  of 
each  upper  lip  on  which  the  coarse  mustache  grows,  the  skin  on 
the  tip  of  the  lower  jaw,  and  its  insignificant  tail.  After  removal 
of  the  skin  from  the  body  of  a  fur-seal,  the  entire  surface  of  the 
carcass  is  covered  with  a  more  or  less  dense  layer,  or  envelope,  of 
soft,  oily  blubber,  which  in  turn  completely  conceals  the  mus- 
cles or  flesh  of  the  trunk  and  neck.  This  fatty  substance,  which 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  343 

we  now  see,  resembles  that  met  with  in  such  seals  everywhere, 
only  possessing  that  strange  peculiarity  not  shared  by  any  other 
of  its  kind,  of  being  positively  overbearing  and  offensive  in  odor 
to  an  unaccustomed  human  nostril.  The  rotting,  sloughing  car- 
casses around  about  did  not,  when  stirred  up,  affect  me  more  un- 
pleasantly than  did  this  strong,  sickening  smell  of  the  fur-seal 
blubber.  It  has  a  character  and  appearance  intermediate  between 
those  belonging  to  the  adipose  tissue  found  on  the  flesh  of  cetacea 
and  some  carnivora. 

This  continuous  envelope  of  blubber  to  the  bodies  of  the  "  hol- 
luschickie  "  is  thickest  in  deposit  at  those  points  upon  the  breast 
between  the  fore  flippers,  reaching  entirely  around  and  over  the 
shoulders,  where  it  is  from  one  inch  to  a  little  over  in  depth.  Upon 
the  outer  side  of  the  chest  it  is  not  half  an  inch  in  thickness,  fre- 
quently not  more  than  a  quarter,  and  it  thins  out  considerably  as 
it  reaches  the  median  line  of  the  back.  The  neck  and  head  are 
clad  by  an  unbroken  continuation  of  the  same  material,  which 
varies  from  one-half  to  one-quarter  of  an  inch  in  depth.  Toward 
the  middle  line  of  the  abdominal  region  there  is  a  layer  of  relative 
greater  thickness.  This  is  coextensive  with  the  sterno-pectoral 
mass  ;  but  it  does  not  begin  to  retain  its  volume  as  it  extends  back- 
ward, where  this  fatty  investment  of  the  carcass  upon  the  loins, 
buttocks,  and  hinder  limbs  fades  out  finer  than  on  the  pectoro- 
abdominal  parts,  and  assumes  a  thickness  corresponding  to  its 
depth  on  the  cervical  and  dorsal  regions.  As  it  descends  on  the 
limbs  this  blubber  thins  out  very  preceptibly ;  and,  when  reaching 
the  flippers,  it  almost  entirely  disappears,  giving  way  to  a  glistening 
aureolar  tissue,  while  the  flipper  skin  finally  descends  in  turn  to 
adhere  closely  and  firmly  to  the  tendinous  ligamentary  structures 
beneath,  which  constitute  the  tips  of  the  swimming-palms. 

The  flesh  and  the  muscles  are  not  lined  between  or  within  by 
fat  of  any  kind  :  this  blubber  envelope  contains  it  all,  with  one 
exception — that  which  is  found  in  the  folds  of  the  small  intestine 
and  about  the  kidneys,  where  there  is  an  abundant  secretion  of  a 
harder,  whiter,  though  still  offensive-smelling  fat. 

It  is  quite  natural  for  our  people  when  they  first  eat  a  meal  on 
the  Pribylov  Islands  to  ask  questions  in  regard  to  what  seal-meat 
looks  and  tastes  like.  Some  of  the  white  residents  will  answer, 
saying  that  they  are  very  fond  of  it  cooked  so  and  so  ;  others  will 
reply  that  in  no  shape  or  manner  can  they  stomach  the  dish.  An 


344  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

inquirer  must  himself  try  the  effect  on  his  own  palate.  I  frankly 
confess  that  I  had  a  slight  prejudice  against  seal-meat  at  first,  hav- 
ing preconceived  ideas  that  it  would  be  fishy  in  flavor  ;  but  I  soon 
satisfied  myself  to  the  contrary,  and  found  that  the  flesh  of  young 
seals  not  over  three  years  old  was  as  appetizing  and  toothsome  as 
some  of  the  beef,  mutton,  and  pork  I  was  accustomed  to  at  home. 
The  following  precautions  must  be  rigidly  observed,  however,  by 
the  cook  who  prepares  fur-seal  steaks  and  sausage-balls  for  our  de- 
lectation and  subsistence.  He  will  fail  if  he  does  not : 

1.  The  meat  must  be  perfectly  cleaned  of  every  vestige  of  blub- 
ber or  fat,  no  matter  how  slight. 

2.  Cut  the  flesh  then  into  very  thin  steaks  or  slices  and  soak 
them  from  six  to  twelve  hours  in  salt  and  water,  a  tablespoon  of 
fine  salt  to  a  quart  of  fresh  water.     This  whitens  the  meat  and  re- 
moves the  residuum  of  dark  venous  blood  that  will  otherwise  give 
a  slightly  disagreeable  taste,  hardly  definable,  though  existing. 

3.  Fry  these  steaks,  or  stew  them  d  la  mode,  with  a  few  thin  slices 
of  sweet  "breakfast "  bacon,  seasoning  with  pepper  and  salt.    A  rich 
brown  gravy  follows  the  cooking  of  the  meat.     Serve  hot,  and  it  is, 
strictly  judged,  a  very  excellent  meat  for  the  daintiest  feeder,  and 
I  hereby  recommend  it  confidently  as  a  safe  venture  for  any  new- 
comer to  make. 

The  flesh  of  young  sea-lions  is  still  better  than  that  of  the  fur- 
seal,  while  the  natives  say  that  the  meat  of  the  hair-seal  (Phoca 
vitulina)  is  superior  to  both,  being  more  juicy.  Fur-seal  meat  is 
exceedingly  dry ;  hence  the  necessity  of  putting  bacon  into  the 
frying-pan  or  stew-pot  with  it.  Sea-lion  flesh  is  an  improvement  in 
this  respect,  and  also  that  its  fat,  strange  to  say,  is  wholly  clear, 
white,  and  inodorous,  while  the  blubber  of  the  "  holluschickie  "  is 
sickening  to  the  smell,  and  will,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  cause  any 
civilized  stomach  to  throw  it  up  as  quickly  as  it  is  swallowed. 
The  natives,  however,  eat  a  great  deal  of  it,  simply  because  they 
are  too  lazy  to  clean  their  fur-seal  cuts  and  not  because  they  really 
relish  it. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  well  to  add  that  the  liver  of  both 
Callorhinus  and  Eumetopias  is  sweet  and  wholesome  ;  or,  in  other 
words,  it  is  as  good  as  liver  usually  is  in  Fulton  Market.  The 
tongues  are  small,  white,  and  fat.  They  are  regularly  cut  out  to 
some  extent  and  salted  in  ordinary  water-buckets  for  exportation 
to  curious  friends.  They  have  but  slight  claim  to  gastronomic 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS. 


345 


favor.  The  natives  are,  however,  very  partial  to  the  liver  ;  but 
though  they  like  the  tongues,  yet  they  are  too  lazy  to  prepare  them. 
A  few  of  them,  in  obedience  to  pressing  and  prayerful  appeals  from 
relatives  at  Oonalashka,  do  exert  themselves  enough  every  season 
to  undergo  the  extra  labor  of  putting  up  several  barrels  of  fresh 
salted  seal-meat,  which,  being  carried  down  to  Illoolook  by  the 
company's  vessels,  affords  a  delightful  variation  to  the  steady  and 
monotonous  codfish  diet  of  those  Aleutian  Islanders. 

The  final  acts  of  curing  and  shipping  pelts  of  fur-seals  from  the 
warehouses  of  the  villages,  rapidly  follow  work  upon  the  killing- 
grounds.  The  skins  are  taken  from  the  field  to  the  salt-house, 


Interior  of  Salt  House,  Village  of  St.  Paul. 
[Stwicing  (fie  method  uf  receiving ,  st  lee-tiny,  lynching  and  tailing  "'green  "  fur-seal  aliux.] 

where  they  are  laid  out,  after  being  again  carefully  examined,  one 
upon  another,  "hair  to  fat,"  like  so  many  sheets  of  paper,  with  salt 
profusely  spread  upon  the  fleshy  sides  as  they  are  piled  up  in  the 
"kenches,"  or  bins.  The  salt-house  is  a  large  barn-like  frame 
structure,  so  built  as  to  afford  one-third  of  its  width  in  the  centre, 
from  end  to  end,  clear  and  open  as  a  passage-way  :  while  on  each 
side  are  rows  of  stanchions,  with  sliding  planks,  which  are  taken 
down  and  put  up  in  the  form  of  deep  bins  or  boxes — "kenches," 
the  sealers  call  them.  As  the  pile  of  skins  is  laid  up  from  the  bot- 
tom of  an  empty  "kench"  and  salt  thrown  in  on  the  outer  edges, 
these  planks  are  also  put  in  place,  so  that  the  salt  may  be  kept  in- 
tact until  that  bin  is  filled  as  high  up  as  a  man  can  toss  the  skins. 
After  lying  two  or  three  weeks  in  this  style  they  become  "pickled," 


346  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

and  they  are  suited  then  at  any  time  to  be  taken  up  and  rolled  into 
bundles  of  two  skins  to  the  package,  with  the  hairy  side  out,  tightly 
corded,  ready  for  shipment  from  the  islands. 

The  average  weight  of  a  two-year-old  skin  is  five  and  one-half 
pounds  ;  of  a  three-year-old  skin,  seven  pounds,  and  of  a  four-year- 
old  skin,  twelve  pounds,  so  that,  as  the  major  portion  of  the  catch 
is  two  or  three  year  olds,  these  bundles  of  two  skins  each  have  a 
general  weight  of  from  twelve  to  fifteen  pounds.  In  this  form 
they  go  into  the  hold  of  the  company's  steamer  at  St.  Paul,  and  are 
counted  out  from  it  in  San  Francisco.  Then  they  are  either  at 
once  shipped  to  London  by  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  in  the  same 
shape,  only  packed  up  in  large  hogsheads  of  from  twenty  to  forty 
bundles  to  the  package,  or  expressed  by  railroad,  via  New  York,  to 
a  similar  destination. 

The  work  of  bundling  the  skins  is  not  usually  commenced  by 
the  natives  until  the  close  of  the  last  week's  sealing  ;  or,  in  other 
words,  those  skins  which  they  first  took,  three  weeks  ago,  are  now 
so  pickled  by  the  salt  in  which  they  have  been  lying  ever  since,  as 
to  render  them  eligible  for  this  operation  and  immediate  shipment. 
The  moisture  of  the  air  dissolves  and  destroys  a  very  large  quantity 
of  that  saline  preservative  which  the  company  brings  up  annually 
in  the  form  of  rock-salt,  principally  obtained  at  Carmen  Island, 
Lower  California. 

The  Alaska  Commercial  Company,  by  the  provisions  of  law 
under  which  they  enjoy  their  franchise,  are  permitted  to  take  one 
hundred  thousand  male  seals  annually,  and  no  more,  from  the 
Pribylov  Islands.  This  they  do  in  June  and  July  of  every  year. 
After  that  season  the  skins  rapidly  grow  worthless,  as  the  animals 
enter  into  shedding,  and,  if  taken,  would  not  pay  for  transportation 
and  the  tax. 

The  bundled  skins  are  carried  from  the  salt-houses  to  the 
beach,  when  an  order  for  shipment  is  given,  pitched  into  a  bidarrah, 
one  by  one,  and  rapidly  stowed  ;  seven  hundred  to  twelve  hundred 
bundles  make  an  average  single  load  ;  then,  when  alongside  the 
steamer,  they  are  again  tossed  up  from  the  lighter  and  onto  her 
deck,  whence  they  are  stowed  in  the  hold.* 

*  The  shallow  depths  of  Bering  Sea  give  rise  to  a  very  bad  surf,  and  though 
none  of  the  natives  can  swim,  as  far  as  I  could  learn,  yet  they  are  quite 
creditable  surf  men,  and  work  the  heavy  "  baidar  "  in  and  out  from  the  land- 
ing adroitly  and  circumspectly.  They  put  a  sentinel  upon  the  bluffs  over  Nah 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  347 

The  method  of  air-drying  which  the  old  settlers  employed  is 
well  portrayed  by  the  practice  of  the  natives  now,  who  treat  a  few 
hundred  sea-lion  skins  to  that  process  every  fall,  preparing  them 
thus  for  shipment  to  Oonalashka,  where  they  are  used  by  brother 
Aleutes  in  covering  their  bidarkies  or  kayaks. 

The  natives,  in  speaking  to  me  of  this  matter,  said  that  when- 
ever the  weather  was  rough  and  the  wind  blowing  hard,  these  air- 
dried  seal-skins,  as  they  were  tossed  from  the  bidarrah  to  the  ship's 
deck,  numbers  of  them,  would  frequently  turn  in  the  wind  and  fly 
clean  over  the  vessel  into  the  water  beyond,  where  they  were  lost. 

Under  the  old  order  of  affairs,  prior  to  the  present  manage- 
ment, the  skins  were  packed  up  and  carried  on  the  backs  of  the 
boys  and  girls,  women  and  old  men,  to  the  salt-houses,  or  drying- 
frames.  When  I  first  arrived,  season  of  1872,  a  slight  variation 
was  made  in  this  respect  by  breaking  a  small  Siberian  bull  into 
harness  and  hitching  it  to  a  cart,  in  which  the  pelts  were  hauled. 
Before  the  cart  was  adjusted,  however,  and  the  "  buik  "  taught  to 
pull,  it  was  led  out  to  the  killing-grounds  by  a  ring  in  its  nose,  and 
literally  covered  with  the  green  seal-hides,  which  where  thus  packed 
to  the  kenches.  The  natives  were  delighted  with  even  this  partial 
assistance  ;  but  now  they  have  no  further  concern  about  it  at  all,  for 
several  mules  and  carts  render  prompt  and  ample  service. 

The  common  or  popular  notion  in  regard  to  seal-skins  is,  that 
they  are  worn  by  those  animals  just  as  they  appear  when  offered 
for  sale  ;  that  the  fur-seal  swims  about,  exposing  the  same  soft  coat 
with  which  our  ladies  of  fashion  so  delight  to  cover  their  tender 

Speel,  and  go  and  come  between  the  rollers  as  he  signals.  They  are  not  grace- 
ful oarsmen  under  any  circumstances,  but  can  pull  heartily  and  coolly  together 
when  in  a  pinch.  The  apparent  ease  and  unconcern  with  which  they  handled 
their  bidarrah  here  in  the  "baroon"  during  the  fall  of  1869  so  emboldened 
three  or  four  sailors  of  the  United  States  Revenue  Marine  cutter  Lincoln  that 
they  lost  their  lives  in  such  surf  through  sheer  carelessness.  The  "gig" 
in  which  they  were  coming  ashore  "  broached  to"  in  the  breakers  just  out- 
side the  cove,  and  their  lifeless  forms  were  soon  after  thrown  up  by  merciless 
waves  on  the  Lagoon  rookery.  Three  graves  of  these  men  are  plainly  marked 
on  a  western  slope  of  the  Black  Bluffs. 

There  is  a  false  air  of  listlessness  and  gentleness  about  an  open  sea,  or  road- 
stead roller,  that  is  very  apt  to  deceive  even  watermen  of  good  understanding. 
The  crushing,  overwhelming  power  with  which  an  ordinary  breaker  will  hurl 
a  large  ship's  boat  on  rocks  awash,  must  be  personally  experienced  ere  it  is 
half  appreciated. 


348  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

forms  during  inclement  winter.  This  is  a  very  great  mistake  ; 
few  skins  are  less  attractive  than  a  seal-skin  is  when  it  is  taken 
from  the  creature.  The  fur  is  not  visible  ;  it  is  concealed  entirely 
by  a  coat  of  stiff  over-hair,  dull,  gray-brown,  and  grizzled.  It  takes 
three  of  them  to  make  a  lady's  sack  and  boa  ;  and  in  order  that  a 
reason  for  their  costliness  may  be  apparent,  I  take  great  pleasure 
in  submitting  a  description  of  the  tedious  and  skilful  labor  ne- 
cessary to  their  dressing  by  the  furriers  ere  they  are  fit  for  use  : 
a  leading  manufacturer,  writing  to  me,  says  : — 

"  When  the  skins  are  received  by  us  in  the  salt,  we  wash  off  the 
salt,  placing  them  upon  a  beam  somewhat  like  a  tanner's  beam,  re- 
moving the  fat  from  the  flesh  side  with  a  beaming-knife,  care  being 
required  that  no  cuts  or  uneven  places  are  made  in  the  pelt.  The 
skins  are  next  washed  in  water  and  placed  upon  the  beam  with  the 
fur  up,  and  the  grease  and  water  removed  by  the  knife.  The  skins 
are  then  dried  by  moderate  heat,  being  tacked  out  on  frames  to 
keep  them  smooth.  After  being  fully  dried,  they  are  soaked  in 
water  and  thoroughly  cleansed  with  soap  and  water.  In  some 
cases  they  can  be  unhaired  without  this  drying  process,  and 
cleansed  before  drying.  After  the  cleansing  process  they  pass  to 
the  picker,  who  dries  the  fur  by  stove-heat,  the  pelt  being  kept 
moist.  When  the  fur  is  dry  he  places  the  skin  on  a  beam,  and 
while  it  is  warm  he  removes  the  main  coat  of  hair  with  a  dull  shoe- 
knife,  grasping  the  hair  with  his  thumb  and  knife,  the  thumb  being 
protected  by  a  rubber  cob.  The  hair  must  be  pulled  out,  not 
broken.  After  a  portion  is  removed  the  skin  must  be  again  warmed 
at  the  stove,  the  pelt  being  kept  moist.  When  the  outer  hairs  have 
been  mostly  removed,  he  uses  a  beaming-knife  to  work  out  the  fine 
hairs  (which  are  shorter),  and  the  remaining  coarser  hairs.  It  will 
be  seen  that  great  care  must  be  used,  as  the  skin  is  in  that  soft 
state  that  too  much  pressure  of  the  knife  would  take  the  fur  also  ; 
indeed,  bare  spots  are  made.  Carelessly  cured  skins  are  some- 
times worthless  on  this  account.  The  skins  are  next  dried,  after- 
ward dampened  on  the  pelt  side,  and  shaved  to  a  fine,  even 
surface.  They  are  then  stretched,  worked,  and  dried,  afterward 
softened  in  a  fulling-mill,  or  by  treading  them  with  the  bare  feet  in 
a  hogshead,  one  head  being  removed  and  the  cask  placed  nearly 
upright,  into  which  the  workman  gets  with  a  few  skins  and  some 
fine,  hardwood  sawdust,  to  absorb  the  grease  while  he  dances  upon 
them  to  break  them  into  leather.  If  the  skins  have  been  shaved  thin, 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  349 

as  required  when  finished,  any  defective  spots  or  holes  must  now 
be  mended,  the  skin  smoothed  and  pasted  with  paper  on  the  pelt 
side,  or  two  pasted  together  to  protect  the  pelt  in  dyeing.  The 
usual  process  in  the  United  States  is  to  leave  the  pelt  sufficiently 
thick  to  protect  them  without  pasting. 

"  In  dyeing,  the  liquid  dye  is  put  on  with  a  brush,  carefully  cover- 
ing the  points  of  the  standing  fur.  After  lying  folded,  with  the 
points  touching  each  other,  for  some  time,  the  skins  are  hung  up  and 
dried.  The  dry  dye  is  then  removed,  another  coat  applied,  dried, 
and  removed,  and  so  on,  until  the  required  shade  is  obtained.  One 
or  two  of  these  coats  of  dye  are  put  on  much  heavier  and  pressed 
down  to  the  roots  of  the  fur,  making  what  is  called  the  ground. 
From  eight  to  twelve  coats  are  required  to  produce  a  good  color. 
The  skins  are  then  washed  clean,  the  fur  dried,  the  pelt  moist. 
They  are  shaved  down  to  the  required  thickness,  dried,  working 
them  some  while  drying,  then  softened  in  a  hogshead,  and  some- 
times run  in  a  revolving  cylinder  with  fine  sawdust  to  clean  them. 
The  English  process  does  not  have  the  washing  after  dyeing." 

On  account  of  the  fact  that  all  labor  in  this  country,  especially 
skilled  labor,  commands  so  much  more  per  diem  in  the  return  of 
wages  than  it  does  in  London  or  Belgium,  it  is  not  practicable  for 
the  Alaska  Commercial  Company,  or  any  other  company  here,  to 
attempt  to  dress  and  put  upon  the  market  its  catch  of  Bering  Sea, 
which  is  in  fact  the  entire  catch  of  the  whole  world.  Our  people 
understand  the  theory  of  dressing  these  skins  perfectly ;  but  they 
cannot  compete  with  the  cheaper  labor  of  the  Old  World.  There- 
fore, nine-tenths,  nearly,  of  the  fur-seal  skins  taken  every  year  are 
annually  purchased  and  dressed  in  London,  and  from  thence 
distributed  all  over  the  civilized  world  where  furs  are  worn  and 
prized. 

The  great  variation  in  the  value  of  seal-skin  sacks,  ranging  from 
seventy-five  dollars  up  to  three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  even 
five  hundred  dollars,  is  not  often  due  to  a  variance  in  the  quality 
of  the  fur  originally  ;  but  it  is  due  to  that  quality  of  the  work 
whereby  the  fur  was  treated  and  prepared  for  wear.  For  instance, 
cheap  sacks  are  so  defectively  dyed  that  a  little  moisture  causes 
them  to  soil  the  collars  and  cuff's  of  their  owners,  and  a  little  ex- 
posure makes  them  speedily  fade  and  look  ragged.  A  properly 
dyed  skin,  one  that  has  been  conscientiously  and  laboriously  fin- 
ished (for  it  is  a  labor  requiring  great  patience  and  great  skill),  will 


350  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

not  rub  off  or  "  crock  "  the  whitest  linen  when  moistened  ;  and  it 
will  wear  the  weather,  as  I  have  myself  seen  it  on  the  form  of  a  sea- 
captain's  wife,  for  six  and  seven  successive  seasons,  without  show- 
ing the  least  bit  of  dimness  or  raggedness.  I  speak  of  dyeing 
alone  ;  I  might  say  the  earlier  steps  of  unhairing,  in  which  the  over- 
hair  is  deftly  combed  out  and  off  from  the  skin,  heated  to  such  a 
point  that  the  roots  of  the  fur  are  not  loosened,  while  those  to  the 
coarser  hirsute  growth  are.  If  this  is  not  done  with  perfect  uni- 
formity, the  fur  will  never  lie  smooth,  no  matter  how  skilfully  dyed; 
it  will  always  have  a  rumpled,  ruffled  look.  Therefore  the  hastily- 
dyed  sacks  are  cheap ;  and  are  enhanced  in  order  of  value  just  as 
the  labor  of  dyeing  is  expended  upon  them. 

Another  singular  and  striking  characteristic  of  the  Island  of  St. 
Paul,  is  the  fact  that  this  immense  slaughtering-field,  upon  which 
seventy-five  thousand  to  ninety  thousand  fresh  carcasses  lie  every 
season,  sloughing  away  into  the  sand  beneath,  does  not  cause  any 
sickness  among  the  people  who  live  right  over  them,  so  to  speak. 
A  cool,  raw  temperature,  and  strong  winds,  peculiar  to  the  place, 
seem  to  prevent  any  unhealthy  effect  from  that  fermentation  of  de- 
cay. An  Elymus  and  other  grasses  once  more  take  heart  and 
grow  with  magical  vigor  over  the  unsightly  spot,  to  which  the  seal- 
ing-gang  again  return,  repeating  their  work  upon  this  place  which 
we  have  marked  before,  three  years  ago.  In  that  way  this  strip  of 
ground,  seen  on  my  map  between  the  village,  the  east  landing,  and 
the  lagoon,  contains  the  bones  and  the  oil-drippings  and  other  frag- 
ments thereof,  of  more  than  three  million  seals  slain  since  1786 
thereon,  while  the  slaughter-fields  at  Novashtoshnah  record  the  end 
of  a  million  more ! 

I  remember  well  those  unmitigated  sensations  of  disgust  which 
possessed  me  when  I  first  landed,  April  28,  1872,  on  the  Pribylov 
Islands,  and  passed  up  from  the  beach,  at  Lukannon,  to  the  village 
over  the  killing-grounds  ;  though  there  was  a  heavy  coat  of  snow  on 
the  fields,  yet  each  and  every  one  of  seventy-five  thousand  decaying 
carcasses  was  there,  and  bare,  having  burned,  as  it  were,  their  way 
out  to  the  open  air,  polluting  the  same  to  a  sad  degree.  I  was 
laughed  at  by  the  residents  who  noticed  my  facial  contortions,  and 
assured  that  this  state  of  smell  was  nothing  to  what  I  should  soon 
experience  when  the  frost  and  snow  had  fairly  melted.  They  were 
correct ;  the  odor  along  by  the  end  of  May  was  terrific  punishment 
to  my  olfactories,  and  continued  so  for  several  weeks  until  my  sense 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  351 

of  smell  became  blunted  and  callous  to  such  stench  by  long  familiar- 
ity. Like  the  other  old  residents  I  then  became  quite  unconscious 
of  the  prevalence  of  this  rich  "funk,"  and  ceased  to  notice  it. 

Those  who  land  here,  as  I  did,  for  the  first  time,  nervously  and 
invariably  declare  that  such  an  atmosphere  must  breed  a  plague  or 
a  fever  of  some  kind  in  the  village,  and  hardly  credit  the  assurance 
of  those  who  have  resided  in  it  for  the  whole  period  of  their  lives, 
that  such  a  thing  was  never  known  to  St.  Paul,  and  that  the  island 
is  remarkably  healthy.  It  is  entirely  true,  however,  and,  after  a 
few  weeks'  contact,  or  a  couple  of  months'  experience,  at  the  long- 
est, the  most  sensitive  nose  becomes  used  to  that  aroma,  wafted  as 
it  is  hourly,  day  in  and  out,  from  decaying  seal-flesh,  viscera,  and 
blubber  ;  and,  also,  it  ceases  to  be  an  object  of  attention.  The 
cool,  sunless  climate  during  the  warmer  months  has  undoubtedly 
much  to  do  with  checking  too  rapid  decomposition  and  consequent 
trouble  therefrom,  which  would  otherwise  arise  from  those  killing- 
grounds. 

The  freshly-skinned  seal  bodies  of  this  season  do  not  seem  to  rot 
substantially  until  the  following  year ;  then  they  rapidly  slough 
away  into  the  sand  upon  which  they  rest ;  the  envelope  of  blubber 
left  upon  each  body  seems  to  act  as  an  air-tight  receiver,  holding 
most  of  the  putrid  gases  that  evolved  from  the  decaying  viscera 
until  their  volatile  tension  causes  it  to  give  way ;  fortunately  the 
line  of  least  resistance  to  that  merciful  retort  is  usually  right  where 
it  is  adjacent  to  the  soil,  so  both  putrescent  fluids  and  much  of  the 
stench  within  is  deordorized  and  absorbed  before  it  can  contami- 
nate the  atmosphere  to  any  great  extent.  The  truth  of  my  observa- 
tion will  be  promptly  verified,  if  the  sceptic  chooses  to  tear  open 
any  one  of  the  thousands  of  gas-distended  carcasses  in  the  fall,  that 
were  skinned  in  the  killing-season  ;  if  he  does  so,  he  will  be  smitten 
by  the  worst  smell  that  human  sense  can  measure  ;  and  should  he 
chance  to  be  accompanied  by  a  native,  that  callous  individual,  even, 
will  pinch  his  grimy  nose  and  exclaim,  it  is  a  "keeshla  pahknoot !" 

At  the  close  of  the  third  season  after  skinning,  a  seal's  body 
will  have  so  rotted  and  sloughed  down,  as  to  be  marked  only  by 
the  bones  and  a  few  of  the  tendinous  ligaments  ;  in  other  words, 
it  requires  from  thirty  to  thirty-six  months'  time  for  such  a  carcass 
to  rot  entirely  away,  so  that  nothing  but  whitened  bones  remain 
above  ground.  The  natives  govern  their  driving  of  the  seals  and 
laying  out  of  the  fresh  bodies  according  to  this  fact — they  can, 


352  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

and  do,  spread  this  year  a  whole  season's  killing  out  over  the  same 
spot  of  the  field  previously  covered  with  such  fresh  carcasses  three 
summers  ago  ;  by  alternating  with  the  seasons  thus,  the  natives  are 
enabled  to  annually  slaughter  all  of  the  "  holluschickie  "  on  a  rela- 
tively small  area,  close  by  the  salt-houses  and  the  village,  as  I  have 
indicated  on  my  map  of  St.  Paul. 

The  St.  Paul  village  site  is  located  wholly  on  the  northern  slope 
of  the  village  hill,  where  it  drops  from  its  greatest  elevation,  at  the 
flagstaff  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet,  gently  down  to  those 
sandy  killing-flats  below  and  between  it  and  the  main  body  of  the 
island.  The  houses  are  all  placed  facing  north  at  regular  inter- 
vals along  the  terraced  streets,  which  run  southeast  and  northwest. 
There  are  seventy -four  or  eighty  native  houses,  ten  large  and 
smaller  buildings  of  the  company,  a  Treasury  agent's  residence, 
a  church,  cemetery  crosses,  and  a  school  building  which  are  all 
standing  here  in  coats  of  pure  white  paint.  No  offal  or  decaying 
refuse  of  any  kind  is  allowed  to  rest  around  the  dwellings  or  lie 
in  the  streets.  It  required  much  determined  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  whites  to  effect  this  sanitary  reform ;  but  now  most  of  the  na- 
tives take  equal  pride  in  keeping  their  surroundings  clean  and  un- 
polluted. The  killing-ground  of  St.  Paul  is  a  bottomless  sand-flat 
only  a  few  feet  above  high  water,  and  which  unites  the  village  hill 
and  the  reef  with  the  island  itself.  It  is  not  a  stone's  throw  from 
the  heart  of  the  settlement ;  in  fact,  it  is  right  in  town,  not  even 
suburban. 

The  site  of  the  St.  George  settlement  is  more  exposed  and  bleak 
than  is  the  one  we  have  just  referred  to  on  St.  Paul.  It  is  planted 
directly  on  a  rounded  summit  of  one  of  the  first  low  hills  that 
rise  from  the  sea  on  the  north  shore.  Indeed,  it  is  the  only  hill 
that  does  slope  directly  and  gently  to  the  salt  water  on  the  island. 
Here  are  twenty-four  to  thirty  native  cottages,  laid  with  their  doors 
facing  the  opposite  sides  of  a  short  street  between,  running  also 
east  and  west,  as  at  St.  Paul.  There,  however,  each  house  looks 
down  upon  the  rear  of  its  neighbor  in  front  and  below — here  the 
houses  face  each  other  on  the  top  of  the  hill.  The  Treasury  agent's 
quarters,  the  company's  six  or  seven  buildings,  the  school-house,  and 
the  church,  are  all  neatly  painted  :  therefore  this  settlement,  by  its 
prominent  position,  shows  from  the  sea  to  a  much  better  advantage 
than  the  larger  one  of  St.  Paul  does.  The  same  municipal  sanitary 
regulations  are  enforced  here.  Those  who  may  visit  the  St.  George 


AMPHIBIAN   MILLIONS.  353 

and  St.  Paul  of  to-day  will  find  their  streets  dry  and  hard  as  floors 
for  they  have  been  covered  with  a  thick  layer  of  volcanic  cinders 
on  both  islands. 

On  St.  George  the  "  holluschickie  "  are  regularly  driven  to  that 
northeast  slope  of  the  village  hill  which  drops  down  gently  to  the 
sea,  where  they  are  slaughtered,  close  by  and  under  the  houses,  as 
at  St.  Paul.  Those  droves  which  are  brought  in  from  the  North 
rookery  to  the  west,  and  also  Starry  Arteel,  are  frequently  driven 
right  through  the  village  itself.  This  killing-field  of  St.  George 
is  hard  tufa  and  rocky,  but  it  slopes  away  to  the  ocean  rapidly 
enough  to  drain  itself  well;  hence  the  constant  rain  and  humid 
fogs  of  summer  carry  off  that  which  would  soon  clog  and  deprive 
the  natives  from  using  the  ground  year  after  year  in  rotation,  as 
they  do.  Several  seasons  have  occurred,  however,  when  this  nat- 
ural cleansing  of  the  place,  above  mentioned,  has  not  been  as  thor- 
ough as  must  be,  so  as  to  be  used  again  immediately  :  then  the  seals 
were  skinned  back  of  the  village  hill  and  in  that  ravine  to  the  west- 
ward on  the  same  slope  from  its  summit. 

This  village  site  of  St.  George  to-day,  and  the  killing-grounds 
adjoining,  used  to  be,  during  early  Russian  occupation,  in  Priby- 
lov's  time,  a  large  sea-lion  rookery,  the  finest  one  known  to  either 
island,  St.  Paul  or  St.  George.  Natives  are  living  now,  who  told 
me  that  their  fathers  had  been  employed  in  shooting  and  driving 
these  sea-lions,  so  as  to  deliberately  break  up  a  breeding-ground, 
and  thus  rid  the  island  of  what  they  considered  a  superabundant 
supply  of  the  Eumetopias,  and  thereby  to  aid  and  encourage  a 
fresh  and  increased  accession  of  fur-seals  from  the  vast  majority  pe- 
culiar to  St.  Paul,  which  could  not  ensue  while  big  sea-lions  held 
the  land. 


,  CHAPTER  XL 

THE  ALASKAN   SEA-LION. 

A  Pelagic  Monarch. — Marked  Difference  between  the  Sea-lion  and  the  Fur- 
seal. — The  Imposing  Presence  and  Sonorous  Voice  of  the  "Sea-king." — 
Terrible  Combats  between  old  Sea-lion  Bulls. — Cowardly  in  the  Presence 
of  Man,  however. — Sea-lions  Sporting  in  the  Fury  of  Ocean.  Surf.— It  has 
no  Fur  on  its  Huge  Hide. — Valuable  only  to  the  Natives,  who  Cover  their 
"Bidarrah"  with  its  Skin. — Its  Sweet  Flesh  and  Inodorous  Fat.— Not 
such  Extensive  Travellers  as  the  Fur-seals. — The  Difficulty  of  Capturing 
Sea-lions. — How  the  Natives  Corral  them. — The  Sea-lion  "  Pen  ''  at  North- 
east Point. — The  Drive  of  Sea-lions. — Curious  Behavior  of  the  Animals. 
— Arrival  of  the  Drove  at  the  Village. — A  Thirteen -mile  Jaunt  with  the 
Clumsy  Drove.— Shooting  the  old  Males.— The  Bloody  "Death-whirl."— 
The  Extensive  Economic  Use  made  of  the  Carcass  by  the  Natives. — 
Chinese  Opium  Pipes  Picked  with  Sea-lion  Mustache  bristles. 

THE  sea-lion  is  also  a  characteristic  pinniped  of  the  Pribylov  Islands, 
but  ranks  much  below  the  fur-seal  in  perfected  physical  organiza- 
tion and  intelligence.  It  can,  as  well  as  its  more  sagacious  and 
valuable  relative,  the  Callorhinus,  be  seen,  perhaps,  to  better  advan- 
tage on  these  islands  than  elsewhere  in  the  whole  world  that  I  know 
of.  The  marked  difference  between  a  sea-lion  and  the  fur-seal  up 
here  is  striking,  the  former  being  twice  the  size  of  its  cousin. 

The  size  and  strength  of  a  northern  sea-lion,  Eumetopias  stel- 
leri,  its  perfect  adaptation  to  its  physical  surroundings,  unite  with 
a  singular  climatic  elasticity  of  organization.  It  seems  to  be  equally 
well  satisfied  with  the  ice-floes  of  the  Kamchatka  Sea  to  the  north- 
ward, or  with  the  polished  boulders  and  the  hot  sands  of  the  coast 
of  California.  It  is  an  animal  as  it  appears  upon  its  accustomed 
breeding  grounds  at  Northeast  Point,  where  I  first  saw  it,  that  com- 
manded my  involuntary  admiration  by  its  imposing  presence  and 
sonorous  voice,  as  it  reared  itself  before  me,  with  head,  neck,  and 
chest  upon  its  powerful  forearms,  over  six  feet  in  height,  while  its 
heavy  bass  voice  drowned  the  booming  of  the  surf  that  thundered 
on  the  rocks  beneath  its  flanks. 


THE  ALASKAN   SEA-LION.  355 

The  bulk  and  power  of  the  adult  sea-lion  male  will  be  better 
appreciated  when  I  say  that  it  has  an  average  length  of  ten  and 
eleven  feet  osteologically,  with  an  enormous  girth  of  eight  to  nine 
feet  around  the  chest  and  shoulders  ;  but  while  the  anterior  parts 
of  its  frame  are  as  perfect  and  powerful  on  land  as  in  sea,  those 
posterior  are  ridiculously  impotent  when  the  huge  beast  leaves  its 
favorite  element.  Still,  when  hauled  up  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
brawling  surf,  as  it  rears  itself,  shaking  the  spray  from  its  tawny 
chest  and  short  grizzly  mane,  it  has  a  leonine  appearance  and  bear- 
ing, greatly  enhanced  as  the  season  advances  by  a  rich  golden- 
rufous  color  of  its  coat ;  the  savage  gleam  of  its  expression  is  due 
probably,  to  the  sinister  muzzle,  and  cast  of  its  eye.  This  optical 
organ  is  not  round  and  full,  soft  and  limpid,  like  the  fur-seal's,  but 
it  is  an  eye  like  that  of  a  bull-dog  :  it  is  small  and  clearly  shows 
under  its  heavy  lids  the  white  or  sclerotic  coat,  with  a  light-brown 
iris.  Its  teeth  gleam  and  glisten  in  pearly  whiteness  against  a  dark 
tongue  and  the  shadowy  recesses  of  its  wide,  deep  mouth.  The 
long,  sharp,  broad-based  canines,  when  bared  by  the  wrathful 
snarling  of  its  gristled  lips,  glittered  more  wickedly,  to  my  eye, 
than  the  keenest  sword  ever  did  in  the  hand  of  man. 

With  these  teeth  alone,  backed  by  the  enormous  muscular  power 
of  a  mighty  neck  and  broad  shoulders,  the  sea-lion  confines  its  bat- 
tles to  its  kind,  spurred  by  terrible  energy  and  heedless  and  persist- 
ent brute  courage.  No  animals  that  I  have  ever  seen  in  combat  pre- 
sented a  more  savage  or  more  cruelly  fascinating  sight  than  did  a 
brace  of  old  sea-lion  bulls  which  met  under  my  eyes  near  the  Gar- 
den Cove  at  St.  George. 

Here  was  a  sea-lion  rookery  the  outskirts  of  which  I  had  trod- 
den upon  for  the  first  time.  Two  aged  males,  surrounded  by  their 
meek,  polygamous  families,  were  impelled  towards  each  other  by 
those  latent  fires  of  hate  and  jealousy  which  seemed  to  burst  forth 
and  fairly  consume  the  angry  rivals.  Opening  with  a  long,  round, 
vocal  prelude,  they  gradually  came  together,  as  the  fur-seal  bulls 
do,  with  averted  heads,  as  though  the  sight  of  each  other  was  sick- 
ening— but  fight  they  must.  One  would  play  against  the  other  for 
an  unguarded  moment  in  which  to  assume  the  initiative,  until  it 
had  struck  its  fangs  into  the  thick  skin  of  its  opponent's  jowl ; 
then,  clinching  its  jaws,  was  not  shaken  off  until  the  struggles  of 
its  tortured  victim  literally  tore  them  out,  leaving  an  ugly,  gaping 
wound — for  the  sharp  eye-teeth  cut  a  deeper  gutter  in  the  skin  and 


356  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

flesh  than  would  have  held  my  hand ;  fired  into  almost  supernatural 
rage,  the  injured  lion  retaliated,  quick  as  a  flash,  in  kind  ;  the  hair 
flew  from  both  of  them  into  the  air,  the  blood  streamed  down  in 
frothy  torrents,  while  high  above  the  boom  of  the  breaking  waves, 
and  shrill  deafening  screams  of  water-fowl  over  head,  rose  the 
ferocious,  hoarse,  and  desperate  roar  of  these  combatants. 

Though  provided  with  flippers,  to  all  external  view,  as  the  fur- 
seal  is,  the  sea-lion  cannot,  however,  make  use  of  them  at  all  in  the 
same  free  manner.  The  fur-seal  may  be  driven  five  or  six  miles  in 
twenty-four  hours  under  the  most  favorable  conditions  of  cool,  moist 
weather ;  the  "  seevitchie,"  however,  can  only  go  two  miles,  the 
weather  and  roadway  being  the  same.  When  driven,  a  sea-lion  bal- 
ances and  swings  its  long  and  heavy  neck,  as  a  lever,  to  and  fro, 
with  every  hitching  up  behind  of  its  posterior  limbs,  which  it  sel- 
dom raises  from  the  ground,  drawing  them  up  after  the  fore-feet 
with  a  sliding  drag  over  the  grass  or  sand  and  rocks,  as  the  case 
may  be,  ever  and  anon  pausing  to  take  a  sullen  and  savage  survey 
of  the  field  and  the  natives  who  are  urging  it. 

The  sea-lion  is  polygamous,  but  it  does  not  maintain  any  regu- 
lar system  and  method  in  preparing  for  and  attending  to  its  harem, 
like  that  so  finely  illustrated  on  the  breeding-grounds  of  the  fur- 
seal  ;  and  it  is  not  so  numerous,  comparatively  speaking.  There 
are  not,  according  to  my  best  judgment,  over  ten  or  twelve  thou- 
sand of  these  animals  altogether  on  the  breeding-grounds  of  the 
Pribylov  Islands.  It  does  not  haul  more  than  a  few  rods  anywhere 
or  under  any  circumstances  back  from  the  sea.  It  cannot  be  visited 
and  inspected  by  men  as  the  fur-seals  are,  for  it  is  so  shy  and  sus- 
picious that  on  the  slightest  warning  of  such  an  approach,  a  stam- 
pede into  the  water  is  sure  to  result. 

That  noteworthy,  intelligent  courage  of  a  fur-seal,  though  it 
does  not  possess  half  the  size  nor  one-quarter  of  the  muscular 
strength  of  a  sea-lion,  is  entirely  wanting  in  the  huge  bulk  and 
brain  of  the  Eumetopias.  A  boy  with  a  rattle  or  a  pop-gun  could 
stampede  ten  thousand  sea-lion  bulls  in  the  height  of  a  breeding- 
season  to  the  water,  and  keep  them  there  for  the  rest  of  the  time.* 

*  That  the  sea-lion  bull  should  be  so  cowardly  in  the  presence  of  man, 
yet  so  ferocious  and  brave  toward  one  another  and  other  amphibious  animals, 
struck  me  as  a  line  of  singular  contrast  with  the  undaunted  bearing  of  a  fur- 
seal  "  seecatch,"  which,  though  being  not  half  the  size  or  possessing  muscular 
power  to  anything  like  its  development  in  the  "seevitchie,"  nevertheless 


THE  ALASKAN   SEA-LION.  357 

Old  males  come  out  and  locate  themselves  over  the  narrow  belts 
of  rookery-grounds  (sometimes,  as  at  St.  Paul,  on  the  immediate 
sea-margin  of  fur-seal  breeding-places),  two  or  three  weeks  in  ad- 
vance of  the  females,  which  arrive  later,  i.e.,  between  the  1st  to  the 
6th  of  June  ;  and  these  females  are  never  subjected  to  that  intense, 
jealous  supervision  so  characteristic  of  the  fur-seal  harem.  Big 
sea-lion  bulls,  however,  fight  savagely*  among  themselves,  and 
turn  off  from  the  breeding-ground  all  younger  and  weaker  males. 

A  cow  sea-lion  is  not  quite  half  the  size  of  an  adult  male ; 
she  will  measure  from  eight  to  nine  feet  in  length  osteologically, 
with  a  weight  of  four  or  five  hundred  pounds ;  she  has  the  same 
general  cast  of  countenance  and  build  of  the  bull ;  but,  as  she 
does  not  sustain  any  fasting  period  of  over  a  week  or  ten  days  con- 
secutively, she  never  comes  out  so  grossly  fat  as  he  does.  With 
reference  to  the  weight  of  the  latter,  I  was  particularly  unfortunate 
in  not  being  able  to  get  one  of  those  big  bulls  on  the  scales  before 
it  had  been  bled,  and  in  bleeding  I  -know  that  a  flood  of  blood 
poured  out  which  should  have  been  recorded  in  the  weight.  There- 
fore I  can  only  estimate  this  aggregate  avoirdupois  of  one  of  the 
finest-conditioned  adult  male  sea-lions  at  fourteen  to  fifteen  hun- 
dred pounds  ;  an  average  weight,  however,  might  safely  be  recorded 
as  touching  twelve  hundred  pounds.f 


will  unflinchingly  face  on  its  station  at  the  rookery  any  man  to  the  death.  The 
sea-lion  bulls  certainly  fight  as  savagely  and  as  desperately  one  with  another, 
as  the  fur-seal  males  do.  There  is  no  question  about  that,  and  their  superior 
strength  and  size  only  makes  the  result  more  effective  in  the  exhibition  of 
gaping  wounds  and  attendant  bloodshed.  I  have  repeatedly  seen  examples  of 
these  old  warriors  of  the  sea  which  were  literally  scarred  from  their  muzzles 
to  their  posteriors  so  badly  and  so  uniformly  as  to  have  fairly  lost  all  the  color 
or  general  appearance  even  of  hair  anywhere  on  their  bodies. 

*  I  recall  in  this  connection  the  sight  of  an  aged  male  sea-lion  which  had 
been  defeated  by  a  younger  and  more  lusty  rival,  perhaps.  It  was  hauled 
upon  a  lava  shelf  at  Southwest  Point,  solitary  and  alone  ;  the  rock  around  it 
being  literally  covered  with  pools  of  pus,  that  was  oozing  out  and  trickling 
down  from  a  score  of  festering  wounds  ;  the  victim  stood  planted  squarely  on 
its  torn  fore  flippers,  with  head  erect  and  thrown  back  upon  its  shoulders;  its 
eyes  were  closed,  and  it  gently  swayed  its  sore  neck  and  shoulders  in  a  sort  of 
troubled,  painful  day-dreaming  or  dozing.  Like  the  fur  seal,  the  sea  lion 
never  notices  its  wounds  to  nurse  and  lick  them,  as  dogs  do,  or  other  carniv 
ora  ;  it  never  pays  the  slightest  attention  to  them,  no  matter  how  grievously 
it  may  be  injured. 

f  Often  when  the  fur-seal  and  sea-lion  bulls  haul  up  in  the  beginning  of 
the  season  examples  among  them  which  are  inordinately  fat  will  be  seen ; 


358  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

You  will  notice  that  if  you  disturb  and  drive  off  any  portion  of 
the  rookery,  by  walking  up  in  plain  sight,  those  nearest  to  you 
will  take  to  the  water  instantly,  swim  out  to  a  distance  of  fifty 
yards  or  so,  leaving  their  pups  behind,  helplessly  sprawled  around 
and  about  the  rocks  at  your  feet.  Huddled  up  all  together  in  the 
surf  in  two  or  three  packs  or  squads,  the  startled  parents  hold 
their  heads  and  necks  high  out  of  the  sea,  and  peer  keenly  at  you  : 
then,  all  roaring  in  an  incessant  concert,  they  make  an  orchestra 
to  which  those  deep  sonorous  tones  of  the  organ  in  that  great  Mor- 
mon tabernacle,  at  Salt  Lake  City,  constitute  the  fittest  and  most 
adequate  resemblance. 

You  will  witness  an  endless  tide  of  these  animals  travelling  to 
the  water,  and  a  steady  stream  of  their  kind  coming  out,  if  you  but 
keep  in  retirement  and  do  not  disturb  them.  When  they  first  issue 
from  the  surf  they  are  a  dark  chocolate  brown-and-black,  and 
glisten  ;  but,  as  their  coats  dry  off,  the  color  becomes  an  iron-gray, 
passing  into  a  bright  golden  rufous,  which  covers  the  entire  body 
alike — shades  of  darker  brown  on  the  pectoral  patches  and  sterno- 
pectoral  region.  After  getting  entirely  dry,  they  seem  to  grow 
exceedingly  uneasy,  and  act  as  though  oppressed  by  heat,  until 
they  plunge  back  into  the  sea,  never  staying  out,  as  the  fur-seal 
does,  day  after  day,  and  week  after  week.  The  females  and  the 
young  males  frolic  in  and  out  of  the  water,  over  rocks  awash,  inces- 
santly, one  with  another,  just  as  puppies  play  upon  a  green  sward  ; 
and,  when  weary,  stretch  themselves  out  in  any  attitude  that  will 
fit  the  character  of  that  rock,  or  the  lava-shingle  upon  which  they 
may  happen  to  be  resting.  The  movements  of  their  supple  spines, 
and  ball-and-socket  joint  attachments,  permit  of  the  most  extra- 
ordinary contortions  of  a  trunk  and  limbs,  all  of  which,  no  matter 
how  distressing  to  your  eyes,  they  seem  actually  to  relish.  But 
the  old  battle-scarred  bulls  of  the  harem  stand  or  lie  at  their  posi- 
tions day  and  night  without  leaving  them,  except  to  take  a  short 
bath  when  the  coast  is  clear,  until  the  end  of  the  season. 

When  swimming,  the  sea-lion  lifts  its  head  only  above  the  sur- 
face long  enough  to  take  a  deep  breath,  then  drops  down  a  few 

their  extra  avoirdupois  renders  them  very  conspicuous,  even  among  large 
gatherings  of  their  kind  ;  they  seem  to  exhibit  a  sense  of  self-oppression  then, 
quite  as  marked  as  is  that  subsequent  air  of  depression  worn  when,  later,  they 
have  starved  out  this  load  of  surplus  blubber,  and  are  shambling  back  to  the 
sea,  for  recuperation  and  rest. 


o    « 

31 


Si 

o    § 

r.     3 


THE   ALASKAN   SEA-LION.  359 

feet  below,  and  propels  itself,  for  about  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  like 
a  cigar-steamer,  at  the  rate  of  six  or  seven  knots,  if  undisturbed ; 
but,  if  chased  or  alarmed,  it  seems  fairly  to  fly  under  water,  and 
can  easily  maintain  for  a  long  time  a  speed  of  fourteen  or  fifteen 
miles  per  hour.  Like  the  fur-seal,  its  propulsion  through  water 
is  the  work  entirely  of  its  powerful  fore-flippers,  which  are  simul- 
taneously struck  out,  both  together,  and  back  against  the  water, 
feathering  forward  again  to  repeat,  while  the  hind  flippers  are 
simply  used  as  a  rudder  oar  in  deflecting  an  ever-varying  swift 
and  abrupt  course  of  the  animal.  On  land  its  hind  flippers  are 
employed  just  as  a  dog  uses  its  feet  in  scratching  fleas — the  long 
peculiar  toe-nails  thereof  seeming  to  reach  and  comb  those  spots 
affected  by  vermin,  which  annoys  it,  as  the  fur-seal  is,  to  a  great 
extent,  and  causes  them  both  to  enjoy  a  protracted  scratching. 

Again,  both  genera,  Callorhinus  and  Eumetopias,  are  happiest 
when  the  surf  is  strongest  and  wildest.  Just  in  proportion  to  the 
fury  of  a  gale,  so  much  the  greater  joy  and  animation  of  these  ani- 
mals. They  delight  in  riding  on  the  crests  of  each  dissolving 
breaker  up  to  a  moment  when  it  fairly  foams  over  iron-bound  rocks. 
At  that  instant  they  disappear  like  phantoms  beneath  the  creamy 
surge,  to  reappear  on  the  crown  of  the  next  mighty  billow. 

When  landing,  they  always  ride  on  the  surf,  so  to  speak,  to  an 
objective  point :  and,  it  is  marvellous  to  see  with  what  remarkable 
agility  they  will  worm  themselves  up  steep,  rocky  landings,  having 
an  inclination  greater  than  forty-five  degrees,  to  flat  bluff-tops 
above,  which  have  an  almost  perpendicular  drop  to  water. 

As  the  sea-lion  is  without  fur,  its  skin  has  little  or  no  commer- 
cial value.*  The  hair  is  short,  an  inch  to  an  inch  and  a  half  in 


*  The  sea-lion  and  hair-seals  of  Bering  Sea,  having  no  commercial  value  in 
the  eyes  of  civilized  men,  have  not  been  subjects  of  interest  enough  to  the 
pioneers  of  those  waters  for  mention  in  particular  ;  such  record,  for  instance,  as 
that  given  of  the  walrus,  the  sea-otter,  and  the  fur-seal.  Steller  was  the  first  to 
draw  the  line  clearly  between  them  and  seals  in  general,  especially  defining 
their  separation  from  the  fur-seal  ;  still  his  description  is  far  from  being  defi- 
nite or  satisfactory  in  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge  of  the  animal. 

In  the  South  Pacific  and  Atlantic  the  sea-lion  has  been  curiously  con- 
founded by  many  of  our  earliest  writers  with  the  sea-elephant,  Macrorhinus 
l">ntnm,  and  its  reference  is  inextricably  entangled  with  the  fur-seal  at  the 
Falklands,  Kerguelen's  Land,  and  the  Crozettes.  The  proboscidean  seal,  how- 
ever, seems  to  be  the  only  pinniped  which  visits  the  Antarctic  continent ;  but 


360  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

length,  being  longest  over  the  nape  of  the  neck ;  straight,  and 
somewhat  coarse,  varying  in  color  as  the  season  comes  and  goes. 
For  instance,  when  the  Eumetopias  makes  its  first  appearance  in 
the  spring  and  dries  out  after  landing,  it  has  then  a  light-brownish 
rufous  tint,  with  darker  shades  back  and  under  the  fore  nippers 
and  on  the  abdomen.  By  the  expiration  of  a  month  or  six  weeks, 
about  June  15th,  generally,  this  coat  will  then  be  weathered  into  a 
glossy  rufous,  or  ochre  yellow ;  this  tinting  remains  until  shed  along 
by  the  middle  of  August,  or  a  little  earlier.  After  a  new  coat  has 
fairly  grown,  and  just  before  an  animal  leaves  the  island  rookery 
in  November,  it  is  a  light  sepia  or  Vandyke  brown,  with  deeper 
shades,  almost  black,  upon  its  abdomen.  The  cows  after  shedding 
never  color  up  so  darkly  as  the  bulls ;  but  when  they  come  back 
to  ihe  land  next  year  they  return  identically  the  same  in  tinting  ; 
so  that  the  eye,  in  glancing  over  a  sea-lion  rookery  during  June 
and  July,  cannot  discern  any  dissimilarity  in  color,  at  all  note- 
worthy, existing  between  the  coats  of  the  bulls  and  the  cows  ;  also, 
the  young  males  and  yearlings  appear  in  that  same  golden-brown 
and  ochre,  with  here  and  there  an  animal  which  is  noted  as  being 
spotted  somewhat  like  a  leopard — a  yellow  rufous  ground  predom- 
inating, with  patches  of  dark-brown,  blotched  and  mottled,  irreg- 
ularly interspersed  over  the  anterior  regions  down  to  those  poster- 
ior. I  have  never  seen  any  of  the  old  bulls  or  cows  thus  mottled, 
and  this  is  likely  due  to  some  irregularity  of  shedding  in  the 
younger  animals ;  for  I  have  not  noticed  it  early  in  the  season,  and 
it  seems  to  fairly  fade  away  so  as  not  to  be  discerned  on  the  same 
animal  at  the  close  of  its  summer  solstice.  Many  of  the  old  bulls 
have  a  grizzled  or  "salt  and  pepper"  look  during  the  shedding 
period,  which  is  from  August  10th  up  to  November  10th  or  20th. 
The  pups,  when  born,  are  a  rich  dark-chestnut  brown.  This  coat 
they  shed  in  October,  and  take  one  much  lighter  in  its  stead,  still 
darker,  however,  than  their  parents. 

The  time  of  arrival  at,  stay  on,  and  departure  from  the  islands, 
is  about  the  same  as  that  which  I  have  recorded  as  characteristic  of 
the  fur-seal ;  but,  if  a  winter  is  an  open,  mild  one,  some  of  the 
sea-lions  will  frequently  be  seen  about  the  shores  during  the  whole 


that  is  a  mere  inference  of  mine,  because  so  little  is  known  of  those  ice-bound 
coasts,  and  Wilkes,  who  gives  the  only  record  made  of  the  subject,  saw  no 
other  animal  there  save  that  one. 


THE   ALASKAN   SEA-LION.  361 

year  ;  and  then  the  natives  occasionally  shoot  them,  long  after  the 
fur-seals  have  entirely  disappeared.  Again,  it  does  not  confine  its 
landing  to  the  Pribylov  Islands  alone,  as  the  fur-seal  unquestionably 
does,  with  reference  to  such  terrestrial  location  in  our  own  country. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  frequent  visitor  to  almost  all  of  the  Aleutian 
Islands :  it  ranges,  as  I  have  said  before,  over  the  mainland  coast 
of  Alaska,  south  of  Bristol  Bay,  and  about  the  Siberian  shores  to 
the  westward,  throughout  the  Kuriles  and  the  Japanese  northern 
waters.* 


*  The  winter  of  1872-73,  which  I  passed  on  the  Pribylov  Islands,  was  so  rig- 
orous that  those  shores  were  ice-bound,  and  the  sea  covered  with  floes  from  Jan- 
uary until  May  28th ;  hence  I  did  not  have  an  opportunity  of  seeing,  for 
myself,  whether  the  sea-lion  remains  about  its  breeding-grounds  there  through- 
out that  period.  The  natives  say  that  a  few  of  them,  when  the  sea  is  open,  are 
always  to  be  found,  at  any  day  during  the  winter  and  early  spring,  hauled  out 
at  Northeast  Point,  on  Otter  Island,  and  around  St.  George.  They  are,  in  my 
opinion,  correct;  and,  being  in  such  small  numbers,  the  "  seevitchie"  un- 
doubtedly find  enough  subsistence  in  local  Crustacea,  pisces,  and  other  food. 
The  natives,  also,  further  stated  that  none  of  the  sea-lions  which  we  observe 
on  the  islands  during  the  breeding-season  leave  the  waters  of  Bering  Sea  from 
the  date  of  their  birth  to  the  time  of  their  death.  I  am  also  inclined  to  agree 
with  this  proposition,  as  a  general  rule,  though  it  would  be  strange  if  Pribylov 
sea-lions  did  not  occasionally  slip  into  the  North  Pacific,  through  and  below 
the  Aleutian  chain,  a  short  distance,  even  to  travelling  as  far  to  the  eastward 
as  Cook's  Inlet.  Eumetopitis  xtetteri  is  well  known  to  breed  at  many  places  be- 
tween Attoo  and  Kadiak  Islands.  I  did  not  see  it  at  St.  Matthew,  however, 
and  I  do  not  think  it  has  ever  bred  there,  although  this  island  is  only  two  hun- 
dred miles  away  to  the  northward  of  the  Seal  Islands— too  many  polar  bears. 
Whalers  speak  of  having  shot  it  in  the  ice-packs  in  a  much  higher  latitude, 
nevertheless,  than  that  of  St.  Matthew.  I  can  find  no  record  of  its  breeding 
anywhere  on  the  islands  or  mainland  coast  of  Alaska  north  of  the  fifty-seventh 
parallel  or  south  of  the  fifty-third  parallel  of  north  latitude.  It  is  common  on 
the  coast  of  Kamchatka,  the  Kurile  Islands,  and  the  Commander  group,  in 
Russian  waters. 

There  are  vague  and  ill-digested  rumors  of  finding  Eumetopias  on  the  shores 
of  Prince  of  Wales  and  Queen  Charlotte  Islands  in  breeding  rookeries  ;  I  doubt 
it.  If  it  were  so,  it  would  be  authoritatively  known  by  this  time.  We  do  find 
it  in  small  numbers  on  the  Farallones  Rocks,  off  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  of 
San  Francisco,  where  it  breeds  in  company  with,  though  sexually  apart  from, 
an  overwhelming  majority  of  Zalophus  ;  and  it  is  credibly  reported  as  breed- 
ing again  to  the  southward,  on  the  Santa  Barbara,  Guadaloupe,  and  other 
islands  of  Southern  and  Lower  California,  consorting  there,  as  on  the  Faral- 
lones, with  an  infinitely  larger  number  of  the  lesser-bodied  Zalophm. 

There  is  no  record  made  which  shows  that  the  fur-seals,  even,  have  any 


362  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

When  I  first  returned,  in  1873,  from  the  Seal  Islands,  those  au« 
thors,  whose  conclusions  were  accepted  prior  to  my  studies  there, 
had  agreed  in  declaring  that  the  sea-lion,  so  common  off  the  port 
of  San  Francisco,  was  the  same  animal  also  common  in  Alaska,  and 
the  Pribylov  Islands  in  especial ;  but  my  drawings  from  life,  and 
studies,  quickly  pointed  out  the  error,  for  it  was  seen  that  the  creat- 
ure most  familiar  to  the  Californians  was  an  entirely  different  ani- 
mal from  my  subject  of  study  on  the  Seal  Islands.  In  other  words, 
while  scattered  examples  of  the  Eumetopias  were,  and  are,  unques- 
tionably about  and  off  the  harbor  of  San  Francisco,  yet  nine  tenths 
of  the  sea-lions  there  observed  were  a  different  animal — they  were 
the  Zalophus  californianus.  This  Zalophus  is  not  much  more  than 
half  the  size  of  Eumetopias,  relatively ;  it  has  the  large,  round,  soft 
eye  of  the  fur-seal,  and  the  more  attenuated  Newfoundland-dog-like 
muzzle  ;  and  it  never  roars,  but  breaks  out  incessantly  with  a  honk, 
honk,  honking  bark,  or  howl. 

No  example  of  Zalophus  has  ever  been  observed  in  the  waters 
of  Bering  Sea,  nor  do  I  believe  that  it  goes  northward  of  Cape 
Flattery,  or  really  much  above  Mendocino,  Cal. 

According  to  the  natives  of  St.  George,  some  sixty  or  seventy 
years  ago  the  Eumetopias  held  almost  exclusive  possession  of  that 
island  being  there  in  great  numbers,  some  two  or  three  hundred 


regular  or  direct  course  of  travel  up  or  down  the  northwest  coast.  They  are 
principally  seen  in  the  open  sea,  eight  or  ten  miles  from  land,  outside  the 
heads  of  the  Straits  of  Fuca,  and  from  there  as  far  north  as  Dixon  Sound. 
During  May  and  June  they  are  aggregated  in  greatest  numbers  here,  though 
examples  are  reported  the  whole  year  around.  The  only  fur-seal  which  I  saw, 
or  was  noted  by  the  crew  of  the  Reliance,  in  her  cruise,  June  1st  to  9th,  from 
Port  Townsend  to  Sitka,  was  a  solitary  "holluschak"  that  we  disturbed  at  sea 
well  out  from  the  lower  end  of  Queen  Charlotte's  Islands  ;  then,  from  Sitka 
to  Kadiak,  we  saw  nothing  of  the  fur-seal  until  we  hauled  off  from  Point  Gre- 
ville,  and  coming  down  to  Ookamok  Islet,  a  squad  of  agile  ' '  holluschickie  " 
suddenly  appeared  among  a  school  of  humpback  whales,  sporting  in  the  most 
extravagant  manner  around,  under,  and  even  leaping  over  the  wholly  indif- 
ferent cetacea.  From  this  eastern  extremity  of  Kadiak  Island  clear  up  to  the 
Pribylov  group  we  daily  saw  them  here  and  there  in  small  bands,  or  also  as 
lonely  voyageurs,  all  headed  for  one  goal.  We  were  badly  outsailed  by 
them;  indeed,  the  chorus  of  a  favorite  "South  Sea  pirate's"  song,  as  inces- 
santly sung  on  the  cutter's  "  'tween  decks,"  seemed  to  have  special  adaptation 
to  them : 

"  For  they  bore  down  from  the  wind'wiard, 
A  sailin'  seven  knots  to  our  four'n." 


THE  ALASKAN   SEA-LION.  363 

thousand  strong ;  and  they  aver,  also,  that  the  fur-seals  then  were 
barely  permitted  to  land  by  these  animals,  and  in  no  great  number  ; 
therefore,  they  assert  they  were  directed  by  the  Russians  (i.e.,  their 
own  ancestry)  to  hunt  and  worry  the  sea-lions  off  from  the  island  : 
the  result  was  that,  as  the  sea-lions  left,  the  fur-seals  came,  so 
to-day  CaUorhinus  occupies  nearly  the  same  ground  which  Eumeto- 
pias  alone  covered  sixty  years  ago.  I  call  attention  to  this  state- 
ment of  the  people  because  it  is,  or  seems  to  be,  corroborated  in  the 
notes  of  a  French  naturalist  and  traveller,  who,  in  his  description  of 
the  Island  of  St.  George,  which  he  visited  sixty  years  ago,  makes 
substantially  the  same  representation.* 

That  great  intrinsic  value  to  the  domestic  service  of  the  Aleutes 
rendered  by  the  flesh,  fat,  and  sinews  of  this  animal,  together  with 
its  skin,  arouses  the  natives  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  George,  who  annu- 
ally make  drives  of  "  seevitchie,"  by  which  they  capture  two  or 
three  hundred,  as  the  case  may  be.  On  St.  George  driving  is 
positively  difficult,  owing  to  the  character  of  the  land  itself  :  hence, 
a  few  only  are  secured  there  ;  but  at  St.  Paul  unexceptional  advan- 
tages are  found  on  Northeast  Point  for  the  capture  of  these  shy  and 
timid  brutes.  The  natives  of  St  Paul,  therefore,  are  depended 
upon  to  secure  the  necessary  number  of  skins  required  by  both 
islands  for  their  boats  and  other  purposes.  This  capture  of  the 
sea-lion  is  the  only  serious  business  which  the  people  have  on  St. 
Paul.  It  is  a  labor  of  great  care,  industry,  and  some  physical  risk 
for  the  Aleutian  hunters,  f 

*  Choris  :  Voyage  Pittoresque  autour  du  Monde. 

f  A  curious,  though  doubtless  authentic,  story  was  told  me  in  this  connec- 
tion illustrative  of  the  strength  and  energy  of  the  sea-lion  bull  when  at 
bay.  Many  years  ago  (1847),  on  St.  Paul  Island,  a  drive  of  September  sea- 
lions  was  brought  down  to  the  village  in  the  usual  style ;  but  when  the  na- 
tives assembled  to  kill  them,  on  account  of  a  great  scarcity  at  that  time  of 
powder  on  the  island,  it  was  voted  best  to  lance  the  old  males  also,  as  well  as 
the  females,  rather  than  shoot  them  in  the  customary  style.  The  people  had 
hardly  set  to  work  at  the  task  when  one  of  their  number,  a  small,  elderly, 
though  tough,  able-bodied  Aleut,  while  thrusting  his  lance  into  the  "  life  "  of  a 
large  bull,  was  suddenly  seen  to  fall  on  his  back  directly  under  that  huge  brute's 
head.  Instantly  the  powerful  jaws  of  the  "  seevitchie  "  closed  upon  the  waist- 
band, apparently,  of  the  native,  and,  lifting  the  yelling  man  aloft  as  a  cat 
would  a  kitten,  the  sea-lion  shook  and  threw  him  high  into  the  air,  away  over 
the  heads  of  his  associates,  who  rushed  up  to  the  rescue  and  quickly  destroyed 
the  animal  by  a  dozen  furious  spear-thrusts ;  yet  death  did  not  loosen  its 
clinched  jaws,  in  which  were  the  tattered  fragments  of  Ivan's  clothing. 


364  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

By  reference  to  my  sketch-map  of  Northeast  Point  rookery  the 
reader  will  notice  a  peculiar  neck  or  boot- shaped  point,  which  I 
have  designated  as  Sea-lion  Neck.  That  area  is  a  spot  upon  which 
a  large  number  of  sea-lions  are  always  to  be  found  during  the 
season.  As  they  are  so  shy  and  sure  to  take  to  water  upon  the  ap- 
pearance or  presence  of  man  near  by,  the  natives  adopt  this  plan  : 
Along  by  the  middle  or  end  of  September,  as  late  sometimes  as 
November,  and  after  the  fur-seal  rookeries  have  broken  up  for  the 
year,  fifteen  or  twenty  of  the  very  best  men  in  the  village  are  se- 
lected by  one  of  their  chiefs  for  a  sea-lion  rendezvous  at  Northeast 
Point.  They  go  up  there  with  their  provisions,  tea,  and  sugar,  and 
blankets,  and  make  themselves  at  home  in  the  barrabora  and  house 
which  I  have  located  on  the  sketch-map  of  Novastoshnah,  prepared 
to  stay,  if  necessary,  a  month,  or  until  they  shall  get  the  whole 
drove  together  of  two  or  three  hundred  sea-lions. 

The  "  seevitchie,"  as  the  natives  call  those  animals,  cannot  be 
approached  successfully  by  daylight,  so  these  hunters  lie  by  in  this 
house  of  Webster's  until  a  favorable  night  comes  along,  one  in 
which  the  moon  is  partially  obscured  by  drifting  clouds  and  the 
wind  blows  over  them  from  the  rookery  where  the  sea-lions  lie. 
Such  an  opportunity  being  afforded,  they  step  down  to  the  beach 
at  low  water  and  proceed  to  creep  on  all  fours  across  surf-beaten 
sand  and  boulders  up  between  the  dozing  herd,  and  the  high-water 
mark  where  it  rests.  In  this  way  a  small  body  of  natives,  crawl- 
ing along  in  Indian  file,  may  pass  unnoticed  by  sea-lion  sentries, 
which  doubtless  in  that  uncertain  light  see,  but  confound  the  forms 
of  their  human  enemies  with  those  of  seals.  When  the  creeping 
Aleutes  have  all  reached  the  strip  of  beach  that  is  left  bare  by  ebb- 
tide, and  is  between  the  surf  and  those  unsuspecting  animals,  at  a 
given  signal  from  their  crawling  leader  they  at  once  leap  to  their 
feet,  shout,  yell,  brandishing  their  arms  and  firing  off  pistols,  while 
the  astonished  and  terrified  lions  roar,  and  flounder  in  every  direc- 
tion. 

If  at  the  moment  of  surprise  seevitchie  are  sleeping  with  their 
heads  pointed  toward  the  water,  as  they  rise  up  in  fright  they 
charge  straight  on  in  that  direction,  right  over  the  men  themselves  ; 
but  those  which  have  been  resting  at  this  instant,  when  startled, 
pointed  landward,  up  they  rise  and  follow  that  course  just  as 
desperately,  and  nothing  will  turn  them  either  one  way  or  the 
other.  These  sea-lions  which  charged  for  the  water  are  lost,  of 


main  IB 


;i 

ll 

•s  = 
1  11 

2  \\ 

I  Si 

111 


nt    bA 

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-o 
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II 


THE    ALASKAN   SEA-LION.  365 

course  ;  *  but  the  natives  promptly  follow  up  the  land-turned  animal 
with  a  rare  combination  of  horrible  noises  and  demoniacal  gesticu- 
lations until  the  first  frenzied  spurt  and  exertions  of  the  terrified 
creatures  so  completely  exhaust  them  that  they  fall  panting,  gasping, 
prone  upon  the  earth,  extended  in  spite  of  then*  bulk  and  powerful 
muscles,  helpless,  and  at  the  mercy  of  their  cunning  captors,  who* 
however,  instead  of  slaying  them  as  they  lie,  rudely  rouse  them  up 
again  and  urge  the  herd  along  to  the  house  in  which  they  have  been 
keeping  watch  during  the  several  days  past. 

Here  at  this  point  is  a  curious  stage  in  such  proceeding.  The  na- 
tives drive  up  to  that  "  Webster's  "  house  those  twenty-five  or  thirty 
or  forty  sea-lions,  as  the  case  may  be,  which  they  have  just  captured 
— they  seldom  get  more  at  any  one  time — and  keep  them  in  a  corral 
or  pen  close  by  the  barrabora,  on  the  flattened  surface  of  a  sand- 
ridge,  in  the  following  comical  manner  :  When  they  have  huddled  up 
the  "pod,"  they  thrust  stakes  down  around  it  at  intervals  of  ten  to 
twenty  feet,  to  which  strips  of  cotton  cloth  are  fluttering  as  flags, 
and  a  line  or  two  of  sinew-rope  or  thong  of  hide  is  strung  from 
pole  to  pole  around  the  group,  making  a  circular  cage,  as  it  were. 
Within  this  flimsy  circuit  the  stupid  sea-lions  are  securely  impris- 
oned, and,  though  they  are  incessantly  watched  by  two  or  three 
men,  the  whole  period  of  caging  and  penning  which  I  observed, 
extending  over  nine  or  ten  days  and  nights,  passed  without  a  singb 


*  The  natives  appreciate  this  peculiarity  of  the  sea-lion  very  keenly,  for 
good  and  sufficient  cause,  though  none  of  them  have  ever  been  badly  injured 
in  driving  or  u  springing  the  alarm."  I  camped  with  them  for  six  successive 
nights  of  September,  1872,  in  order  to  witness  the  whole  procedure.  During 
the  several  drives  made  while  I  was  with  them  I  saw  but  one  exciting  inci- 
dent. Everything  went  off  in  an  orthodox  manner,  as  described  in  the  text 
above.  The  exceptional  incident  occurred  during  the  first  drive  of  the  first 
night  and  rendered  those  natives  so  cautious  that  it  was  not  repeated.  When 
the  alarm  was  sprung,  old  Luka  Mandrigan  was  leading  the  van,  and  at  that 
moment  down  upon  him,  despite  his  wildly  gesticulating  arms  and  vociferous 
yelling,  came  a  squad  of  bull  "seevitchie."  The  native  saw  instantly  that 
they  were  pointed  for  the  water,  and,  in  his  sound  sense,  turned  to  run  from 
under.  His  tarbosars  slipped  upon  a  slimy  rock  awash ;  he  fell  flat  as  a  flounder 
just  as  a  dozen  or  more  big  sea-lions  plunged  over  and  on  to  his  prostrate  form 
in  the  shallow  water.  In  less  time  than  this  can  be  written  the  heavy  pinni- 
peds had  disappeared,  while  the  bullet-like  head  of  old  Luka  was  quickly 
ruM-d.  and  he  trotted  back  to  us  with  an  alternation  of  mirth  and  chagrin  in 
his  voice.  He  was  not  hurt  in  the  least. 


366 


OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 


effort  being  made  by  the  "  seevitchie  "  to  break  out  of  their  flimsy 
bonds,  and  it  was  passed  by  these  animals,  not  in  stupid  quiescence, 
but  in  alert  watchfulness,  roaring,  writhing,  twisting,  turning  one 
upon  and  over  the  other. 

By  this  method  of  procedure,  after  the  lapse  usually  of  two  or 
three  weeks,  a  succession  of  favorable  nights  will  have  occurred  : 
then  the  natives  secure  their  full  quota,  which,  as  I  have  said  before, 
is  expressed  by  a  herd  of  two  or  three  hundred  of  these  animals. 


When  that  comple- 
ment is  filled,  the  natives 
prepare  to  drive  their 
herd  back  to  the  village 
over  the  grassy  and  mos- 
sy uplands  and  interven- 
ing stretches  of  sand- 
dune  tracts,  fully  eleven 
miles  :  preferring  thus  to 
take  the  trouble  of  prod- 
ding such  clumsy  brutes, 
wayward  and  obstinate  as 
they  are,  rather  than  to 
pack  their  heavy  hides  in  and  out  of  boats,  making  in  this  way  each 
sea-lion  carry  its  own  skin  and  blubber  down  to  the  doors  of  their 
houses  in  the  village.  If  the  weather  is  normally  wet  and  cold,  this 
drive  or  caravan  of  sea-lions  can  be  driven  to  its  point  of  destina- 
tion in  five  or  six  days  ;  but  should  it  be  dry  and  warmer  than  usual, 
three  weeks,  and  even  longer,  will  elapse  before  the  circuit  is  trav- 
ersed. 

When  the  drive  is  started,  the  natives  gather  around  the  herd 
on  all  sides,  save  an  opening  which   they  leave  pointing  to  that 


The   Sea-lion   Caravan. 

[Natives  driving  a  drove  over  the  plain  of  Poiavina,  en 
route  from  Northeast  Point  to  St.  Paul.} 


THE   ALASKAN   SEA-LION.  367 

direction  they  desire  the  animals  to  travel ;  in  this  manner  they 
escort  and  urge  the  "  seevitchie  "  along  to  their  final  resting  and 
slaughter  near  the  village.  The  young  lions  and  the  females, 
being  much  lighter  than  old  males,  less  laden  with  fat  or  blubber, 
take  the  lead,  for  they  travel  twice  and  thrice  as  easy  and  as  fast 
as  the  latter ;  these,  by  reason  of  their  immense  avoirdupois,  are 
incapable  of  moving  ahead  more  than  a  few  rods  at  a  time,  then 
they  are  completely  checked  by  sheer  loss  of  breath,  though  the 
vanguard  of  the  females  allures  them  on  ;  but  when  an  old  sea-lion 
feels  his  wind  coming  short,  he  is  sure  to  stop,  sullenly  and  surlily 
turning  upon  the  drivers,  not  to  move  again  until  his  lungs  are  clear. 
In  this  method  and  manner  of  direction  the  natives  stretch 
a  herd  out  in  extended  file,  or  as  a  caravan,  over  the  line  of  march, 
and  as  the  old  bulls  pause  to  savagely  survey  the  field  and  catch 
their  breath,  showing  their  wicked  teeth,  the  drivers  have  to  exer- 
cise every  art  and  all  their  ingenuity  in  arousing  them  to  fresh 
efforts.  This  they  do  by  clapping  boards  and  bones  together,  firing 
fusees,  and  waving  flags  ;  and  of  late,  and  best  of  all,  the  blue  ging- 
ham umbrella  repeatedly  opened  and  closed  in  the  face  of  an  old 
bull  has  been  a  more  effective  starter  than  all  the  other  known  arti- 
fices or  savage  expedients  of  the  natives.  * 

*  The  curious  behavior  of  sea-lions  in  the  Big  Lake  when  they  are  en 
route  and  driven  from  Novastoshnah  to  the  village  deserves  mention.  After 
the  drove  gets  over  the  sand  dunes  and  beach  between  Webster's  house  and 
the  extreme  northeastern  head  of  the  lake,  a  halt  is  called  and  the  drove 
44  penned"  on  the  bank  there.  Then,  when  the  sea-lions  are  well  rested,  they 
are  started  up  and  pell  mell  into  the  water.  Two  natives  in  a  bidarka  keep 
them  from  turning  out  from  shore  into  the  broad  bosom  of  Meesulkmahnee, 
while  another  bidarka  paddles  in  their  rear  and  follows  their  swift  passage 
right  down  the  eastern  shore.  In  this  method  of  procedure  the  drive  carries 
itself  nearly  two  miles  by  water  in  less  than  twenty  minutes  from  the  time  the 
sea-lions  are  first  turned  in  at  the  north  end  to  that  moment  when  they  are 
driven  out  at  the  southeastern  elbow  of  the  Big  Pond.  The  shallowness  of 
the  water  here  accounts  probably  for  the  strange  failure  of  these  sea-lions  to 
regain  their  liberty,  and  it  so  retards  their  swimming  as  to  enable  the  bidarka, 
with  two  men,  to  keep  abreast  of  their  leaders  easily,  as  they  plunge  ahead  ; 
and,  "as  one  goes,  so  all  go  sheep,"  it  is  not  necessary  to  pay  attention  to 
those  which  straggle  behind  in  the  wake.  They  are  stirred  up  by  a  second 
bidarka,  and  none  make  the  least  attempt  to  diverge  from  that  track  which 
the  swifter  mark  out  in  advance.  If  they  did,  they  could  escape  "  scot-free" 
in  any  one  of  the  twenty  minutes  of  this  aquatic  passage. 

By  consulting  the  map  of  St.  Paul  it  will  be  observed  that  in  a  direct  line 


368  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

The  procession  of  sea-lions,  managed  in  this  strange  manner  day 
and  night — for  the  natives  never  let  up — is  finally  brought  to  rest 
within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  village,  which  has  pleasurably  antici- 
pated for  days  and  for  weeks  its  arrival,  and  rejoices  in  its  appear- 
ance. The  men  get  out  their  old  rifles  and  large  sea-lion  lances, 
and  sharpen  their  knives,  while  the  women  look  well  to  their  oil- 
pouches,  and  repair  to  the  field  of  slaughter  with  meat-baskets  on 
their  heads. 

No  attempt  is  made,  even  by  the  boldest  Aleut,  to  destroy  an 
adult  bull  sea-lion  by  spearing  the  enraged,  powerful  beast,  which, 
now  familiar  with  man  and  conscious,  as  it  were,  of  his  puny 
strength,  would  seize  the  lance  between  its  jaws  and  shake  it  from 
the  hands  of  the  stoutest  one  in  a  moment.  Recourse  is  had  to 
a  rifle.  The  herd  is  started  up  those  sloping  flanks  of  the  Black 
Bluff  hillside  ;  the  females  speedily  take  the  front,  while  the  old 
males  hang  behind.  Then  the  marksmen,  walking  up  to  within  a 
few  paces  of  each  animal,  deliberately  draw  gun-sight  upon  their 
heads  and  shoot  them  just  between  the  eye  and  the  ear.  The  old 
males  thus  destroyed,  the  cows  and  females  are  in  turn  surrounded 
by  the  natives,  who,  dropping  their  rifles,  thrust  big  heavy  iron 
lances  into  their  trembling  bodies  at  a  point  behind  the  fore  flip- 


between  the  village  and  Northeast  Point  there  are  quite  a  number  of  small 
lakes,  including  this  large  one  of  Meesulkmahnee.  Into  all  of  these  ponds 
the  sea-lion  drove  is  successively  driven.  This  interposition  of  fresh  water  at 
such  frequent  intervals  serves  to  shorten  the  time  of  that  journey  fully  ten 
days  in  warmish  weather,  and  at  least  four  or  five  under  the  best  of  climatic 
conditions. 

This  track  between  Webster's  house  and  the  village  killing-grounds  is 
strewn  with  the  bones  of  Eumetopias.  They  will  drop  in  their  tracks  now  and 
then,  even  when  carefully  driven,  from  cerebral  or  spinal  congestion  princi- 
pally, and  when  they  are  hurried  the  mortality  en  route  is  very  great.  The 
natives  when  driving  them  keep  them  going  day  and  night  alike,  but  give 
them  frequent  resting-spells  after  every  spurt  ahead.  The  old  bulls  flounder 
along  for  a  hundred  yards  or  so,  then  sullenly  halt  to  regain  breath,  five  or 
ten  minutes  being  allowed  them ;  then  they  are  stirred  up  again,  and  so  on, 
hour  after  hour,  until  the  tedious  transit  is  completed. 

The  younger  sea-lions  and  the  cows  which  are  in  the  drove  carry  them- 
selves easily  far  ahead  of  the  bulls,  and,  being  thus  always  in  the  van,  serve 
unconsciously  to  stimulate  and  coax  the  heavy  males  to  travel.  Otherwise  I 
do  not  believe  that  a  band  of  old  bulls  exclusively  could  be  driven  down  over 
this  long  road  successfully. 


THE   ALASKAN   SEA-LION.  369 

pers,  touching  the  heart  with  a  single  lunge.     It  is  an  unparalleled 
spectacle,  dreadfully  cruel  and  bloody.* 

This  surrounding  of  the  cows  is,  perhaps,  the  strangest  proced- 
ure on  the  islands.  To  fully  appreciate  this  subject  the  reader  must 
first  call  to  his  mind's  eye  the  fact  that  these  female  sea-lions, 
though  small  beside  the  males,  are  yet  large  animals  ;  seven  and 
eight  feet  long  and  weighing  each  as  much  as  any  four  or  five 
average  men.  But,  in  spite  of  their  strength  and  agility,  fifteen  or 
twenty  Aleutes,  with  rough,  iron-tipped  lances  in  their  hands,  will 
suiTound  a  drove  of  fifty  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  them  by  form- 
ing a  noisy,  gesticulating  circle,  gradually  closing  up,  man  to  man, 
until  the  sea-lions  are  literally  piled  in  a  writhing,  squirming, 
struggling  mass,  one  above  the  other,  three  or  four  deep,  heads, 
flippers,  bellies,  backs,  all  so  woven  and  interwoven  in  this  panic- 
stricken  heap  of  terrified  creatures  that  it  defies  adequate  descrip- 
tion. The  natives  spear  those  cows  on  top,  which,  as  they  sink  in 


*  When  slowly  sketching,  by  measurements,  the  outlines  of  a  fine  adult 
bull  sea-lion  which  the  ball  from  Booterin's  rifle  had  just  destroyed,  an  old 
•'  starooka  "  came  up  abruptly  ;  not  seeming  to  see  me,  she  deliberately  threw 
down  a  large,  greasy,  skin  meat-bag,  and  whipping  out  a  knife,  went  to  work 
on  my  specimen.  Curiosity  prompted  me  to  keep  still,  in  spite  of  the  first 
sensations  of  annoyance,  so  that  I  might  watch  her  choice  and  use  of  the  ani- 
mal's carcass.  She  first  removed  the  skin,  being  actively  aided  in  this  opera- 
tion by  an  uncouth  boy ;  she  then  cut  off  the  palms  to  both  fore  flippers ;  the 
boy  at  the  same  time  pulled  out  its  mustache-bristles  ;  she  then  cut  out  its 
gullet,  from  the  glottis  to  its  junction  with  the  stomach,  carefully  divested  it 
of  all  fleshy  attachments  and  fat ;  she  then  cut  out  the  stomach  itself,  and 
turned  it  inside  out,  carelessly  scraping  its  gastric  walls  free  of  copious  biliary 
secretions,  the  inevitable  bunch  of  ascaris  ;  she  then  told  the  boy  to  take  hold 
of  the  duodenum  end  of  the  small  intestine,  and,  as  he  walked  away  with  it, 
she  rapidly  cleared  it  of  its  attachments,  so  that  it  was  thus  uncoiled  to  its 
full  length  of  at  least  sixty  feet ;  then  she  severed  it  and  then  it  was  re-coiled 
by  the  "melchiska,''  and  laid  up  with  the  other  members  just  removed,  ex- 
cept the  skin,  which  she  had  nothing  more  to  do  with.  She  then  cut  out  the 
liver  and  ate  several  large  pieces  of  that  workhouse  of  the  blood  before  drop- 
ping it  into  her  meat-pouch.  She  then  raked  up  several  handfuls  of  the 
*'  leaf-lard,"  or  hard,  white  fat  that  is  found  in  moderate  quantity  around  the 
viscera  of  all  these  pinnipeds,  which  she  also  dumped  into  the  flesh-bag  ;  she 
then  drew  her  knife  through  the  large  heart,  but  did  not  touch  it  otherwise, 
looking  at  it  intently,  however,  as  it  still  quivered  in  unison  with  the  warm 
flesh  of  the  whole  carcass.  She  and  the  boy  then  poked  their  fingers  into  the 
tumid  lobes  of  the  immense  lungs,  cutting  out  portions  of  them  only,  which 
24 


370  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

death,  are  mounted  in  turn  by  the  live  animals  underneath  ;  these 
meet  the  deadly  lance,  in  order,  and  so  on  until  the  whole  herd  is 
quiet  and  stilled  in  the  fatal  ebbing  of  their  hearts'  blood. 

Although  the  sea-lion  has  little  or  no  commercial  value  for  us, 
yet  to  the  service  of  the  natives  themselves,  who  live  all  along  the 
Bering  Sea  coast  of  Alaska,  Kamchatka,  and  the  Kuriles,  it  is  in- 
valuable ;  they  set  great  store  by  it.  It  supplies  them  with  its  hide, 
mustaches,  flesh,  fat,  sinews,  and  intestines,  which  they  make  up  in- 
to as  many  necessary  garments,  food-dishes,  etc.  They  have  abun- 
dant reason  to  treasure  its  skin  highly,  since  it  is  the  covering  to 
their  neat  bidarkas  and  bidarrahs,  the  former  being  the  small  kayak 
of  Bering  Sea,  while  the  latter  is  a  boat  of  all  work,  exploration 
and  transportation.  These  skins  are  unhaired  by  sweating  in  a  pile, 
then  they  are  deftly  sewed  and  carefully  stretched  over  a  light  keel 
and  frame  of  wood,  making  a  perfectly  water-tight  boat  that  will 
stand,  uninjured,  the  softening  influence  of  water  for  a  day  or  two 


were  also  put  into  the  grimy  pouch  aforesaid ;  then  she  secured  the  gall-blad- 
der and  slipped  it  into  a  small  yeast-powder  tin,  which  was  produced  by  the 
urchin  ;  then  she  finished  her  economical  dissection  by  cutting  the  sinews  out 
of  its  back  in  unbroken  bulk  from  the  cervical  vertebra  to  the  sacrum  ;  all 
these  were  stuffed  into  that  skin  bag,  which  she  threw  on  her  back  and  sup- 
ported it  by  a  band  over  her  head ;  she  then  trudged  back  to  the  barrabkie 
from  whence  she  sallied  a  short  hour  ago,  like  an  old  vulture  to  the  slaughter. 
She  made  the  following  disposition  of  its  contents:  The  palms  were  used  to 
sole  a  pair  of  tarbosars,  or  native  boots,  of  which  the  uppers  and  knee-tops 
were  made  of  the  gullets — one  sea-lion  gullet  to  each  boot-top ;  the  stomach 
was  carefully  blown  up  and  left  to  dry  on  the  barrabkie  roof,  eventually  to  be 
filled  with  oil  rendered  from  sea-lion  or  fur-seal  blubber.  The  small  intestine 
was  carefully  injected  with  water  and  cleansed,  then  distended  with  air,  and 
pegged  out  between  two  stakes,  sixty  feet  apart,  with  little  cross-slats  here  and 
there  between  to  keep  it  clear  of  the  ground.  When  it  is  thoroughly  dry  it 
is  ripped  up  in  a  straight  line  with  its  length  and  pressed  out  into  a  broad 
band  of  parchment  gut,  which  she  cuts  up  and  uses  in  making  a  water-proof 
"kamlayka,"  sewing  it  with  those  sinews  taken  from  the  back.  The  liver, 
leaf  lard,  and  lobes  of  the  lungs  were  eaten  without  further  cooking,  and  the 
little  gall-bag  was  for  some  use  in  poulticing  a  scrofulous  sore.  The  mustache- 
bristles  were  a  venture  of  the  boy,  who  gathers  all  that  he  can,  then  sends 
them  to  San  Francisco,  where  they  find  a  ready  sale  to  the  Chinese,  who  pay 
about  one  cent  apiece  for  them.  When  the  natives  cut  up  a  sea-lion  carcass 
or  one  of  a  fur-seal,  on  the  killing-grounds  for  meat,  they  take  only  the  hams 
and  the  loins.  Later  in  the  season  they  eat  the  entire  carcass,  which  they  hang 
up  by  its  hind  flippers  on  a  "  laabas  "  by  their  houses. 


THE   ALASKAN   SEA-LION. 


371 


at  a  time,  if  properly  air-dried  and  oiled.  After  being  used  during 
the  day  these  skin  boats  are  always  drawn  out  on  the  beach,  turned 
bottom-side  up  and  air-dried  during  the  night — in  this  way  made 
ready  for  employment  again  on  the  morrow. 

A  peculiar  value  is  attached  to  the  intestines  of  the  sea-lion , 
which,  after  skinning,  are  distended  with  air  and  allowed  to  dry 
in  that  shape ;  then  they  are  cut  into  ribbons  and  sewed  strongly 
together  into  that  most  characteristic  rain-proof  garment  of  the 
world,  known  as  the  "kamlayka,"  which,  while  being  fully  as 
water-repellant  as  india-rubber,  has  far  greater  strength,  and  is 
never  affected  by  grease  and  oil.  It  is  also  transparent  in  its  fit- 
ting over  dark  clothes.  The  sea-lions'  throats  are  treated  in  a 
similar  manner,  and  when  cured,  are  made  into  boot  tops,  which 


The  "  Bidarrah." 
[Characteristic  Alaskan  boat,  made  by  Jilting  tea- lion  skiius  over  a  wooden  frame  and  keel.} 

are  in  turn  soled  by  very  tough  skin  that  composes  the  palms  of 
this  animal's  fore  nippers. 

The  Aleutian  name  for  this  garment  is  unpronounceable  in  our 
language,  and  equally  so  in  the  more  flexible  Eussian  ;  hence  the 
Alaskan  "  kamlayka,"  derived  from  the  Siberian  "kamlaia."  That 
is  made  of  tanned  reindeer  skin,  unhaired,  and  smoked  by  larch 
bark  until  it  is  colored  a  saffron  yellow  ;  and  is  worn  over  a  rein- 
deer-skin undershirt,  which  has  the  hair  next  to  its  owner's  skin, 
and  the  obverse  side  stained  red  by  a  decoction  of  alder- bark.  The 
kamlaia  is  closed  behind  and  before,  and  a  hood,  fastened  to  the 
back  of  the  neck,  is  drawn  over  the  head,  when  leaving  shelter  ;  so 
is  the  Aleutian  kamlayka  ;  only  the  one  of  Kolyma  is  used  to  keep 
out  piercing  dry  cold,  while  the  garment  of  the  Bering  Sea  is  a  per- 
fect water-tight  affair. 


372  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

Around  the  natives'  houses,  on  St.  Paul  and  St.  George,  con- 
stantly appear  curious  objects  which,  to  an  unaccustomed  eye,  re- 
semble overgrown  gourds  or  enormous  calabashes  with  attenuated 
necks  ;  examination  proves  them  to  be  the  diied,  distended  stom- 
ach-walls of  a  sea-lion,  filled  with  its  oil — which  (unlike  the  offen- 
sive blubber  of  the  fur-seal)  boils  out  clear  and  inodorous  from  its 
fat.  The  flesh  of  an  old  sea-lion,  while  not  very  palatable,  is  taste- 
less and  dry  ;  but  the  meat  of  a  yearling  is  very  much  like  veal,  and 
when  properly  cooked  I  think  it  is  just  as  good  ;  but  the  superior- 
ity of  sea-lion  meat  over  that  of  the  fur-seal  is  decidedly  marked. 
It  requires  some  skill  in  the  cuisine  ere  sausage  and  steaks  of  the 
Callorhinus  are  accepted  on  the  table  ;  while  it  does  not,  however, 
require  much  art,  experience,  or  patience  for  good  cooks  to  serve 
up  the  juicy  ribs  of  a  young  sea-lion  so  that  the  most  fastidious 
palate  will  not  fail  to  relish  it. 

The  carcass  of  a  sea-lion,  after  it  is  stripped  of  its  hide,  and 
disembowelled,  is  hung  up  in  cool  weather  by  its  hind  flippers,  over 
a  rude  wooden  frame  or  "labaas,"  as  the  natives  call  such  a  struc- 
ture, where,  together  with  many  more  bodies  of  fur-seals  treated  in 
the  same  manner,  it  serves  from  November  until  the  following  sea- 
son of  May,  as  the  meat-house  for  an  Aleut  on  St.  Paul  and  St. 
George.  Exposed  in  this  manner  to  open  weather,  the  natives  keep 
their  seal-meat  almost  any  length  of  time,  in  winter,  for  use  ;  and, 
like  our  old  duck  and  bird-hunters,  they  say  they  prefer  to  have 
this  flesh  tainted  rather  than  fresh,  declaring  that  it  is  most  ten- 
der and  toothsome  when  decidedly  "loud." 

The  tough,  elastic  mustache-bristles  of  a  sea-lion  are  objects  of 
great  commercial  activity  by  the  Chinese,  who  prize  them  highly  as 
pickers  for  their  opium  pipes,  and  several  ceremonies  peculiar  to 
their  joss-houses.  Such  lip-bristles  of  the  fur-seal  are  usually  too 
small  and  too  elastic  for  this  service.  The  natives,  however,  always 
carefully  pluck  them  out  of  the  Eumetopias,  and  get  their  full  value 
in  exchange. 

The  sea-lion  also,  as  in  the  case  of  the  fur-seal,  is  a  fish-eater, 
pure  and  simple,  though  he,  like  the  latter,  occasionally  varies  his 
diet  by  consuming  a  limited  amount  of  juicy  sea-weed  fronds,  and 
tender  marine  crustaceans  ;  but  he  hunts  no  animal  whatever  for 
food,  nor  does  he  ever  molest,  up  here,  the  sea-fowl  that  incessantly 
hover  over  his  head,  or  sit  in  flocks  without  any  fear  on  the  surface 
of  the  waters  around  him.  He,  like  Callorhinus,  is,  without  ques- 


THE   ALASKAN   SEA-LION.  373 

tion,  a  mighty  fisherman,  familiar  with  every  submarine  haunt  of 
his  piscatorial  prey  ;  and,  like  his  cousin,  rejects  the  heads  of  all 
those  fish  which  have  hard  horny  mouths  or  are  filled  with  teeth 
or  bony  plates. 

Many  authorities  who  are  quoted  in  regard  to  the  habits  of 
hair-seals  and  southern  sea-lions  speak  with  much  fine  detail  of  hav- 
ing witnessed  the  capture  of  water-birds  by  Phocidce  and  Otariidce. 
To  this  point  of  inquiry  on  the  Pribylov  Islands  I  gave  continued 
close  attention  ;  because,  off  and  around  all  of  the  rookeries,  large 
flocks  of  auks,  arries,  gulls,  shags,  and  choochkies  were  swimming 
upon  the  water,  and  shifting  thereupon  incessantly,  day  and  night, 
throughout  the  late  spring,  summer,  and  early  fall.  During  the 
four  seasons  of  my  observation  I  never  saw  the  slightest  motion 
made  by  a  fur-seal  or  sea-lion,  a  hair-seal  or  a  walrus,  toward  inten- 
tionally disturbing  a  single  bird,  much  less  of  capturing  and  eating 
it.  Had  these  seals  any  appetite  for  sea-fowl,  this  craving  could 
have  been  abundantly  satisfied  at  the  expense  of  absolutely  no  effort 
on  their  part.  That  none  of  these  animals  have  any  taste  for  water- 
birds  I  am  thoroughly  assured. 

In  concluding  this  recitation  of  that  wonderful  seal  life  be- 
longing to  those  islets  of  Pribylov,  it  is  well  to  emphasize  the  fact 
that,  with  an  exception  of  the  Russian  and  American  seal  islands  of 
Bering  Sea,  there  are  none  elsewhere  in  the  world  of  the  slightest 
importance  to-day  ;  the  vast  breeding-grounds  of  fur-seals  border- 
ing on  the  Antarctic  have  been,  by  the  united  efforts  of  all  nation- 
alities— misguided,  short-sighted,  and  greedy  of  gain — entirely  de- 
populated ;  only  a  few  thousand  unhappy  stragglers  are  now  to  be 
seen  throughout  all  that  southern  area,  where  millions  once  were 
found,  and  a  small  rookery,  protected  and  fostered  by  the  govern- 
ment of  a  South  American  State,  north  and  south  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Rio  de  la  Plata.  When,  therefore,  we  note  the  eagerness  with 
which  our  civilization  calls  for  seal-skin  fur,  the  fact  that  in  spite 
of  fashion  and  its  caprices  this  fur  is  and  always  will  be  an  article 
of  intrinsic  value  and  in  demand,  the  thought  at  once  occurs  that 
the  Government  is  exceedingly  fortunate  in  having  this  great  am- 
phibious stock-yard,  far  up  and  away  in  the  quiet  seclusion  of  Ber- 
ing Sea,  from  which  it  shall  draw  an  everlasting  revenue,  and  on 
which  its  wise  regulation  and  its  firm  hand  can  continue  the  seals 
forever. 


CHAPTER  XIL 
INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND. 

"  Nooshagak  ;"  Wide  Application  of  an  Innuit  Name. — The  Post  and  River.— 
Countless  Pools,  Ponds,  and  Lakes  of  this  District  bordering  Bristol  Bay. 
— The  Eskimo  Inhabitants  of  the  Coast. — The  Features  and  Form  of 
Alaskan  Innuits. — Light-hearted,  Inconstant,  and  Independent. — Their 
Dress,  Manners,  and  Rude  Dwellings.— Their  Routine  of  Life. — Large  and 
Varied  Natural  Food-supplies. — Indifferent  Land  Hunters,  but  Mighty 
Fishermen. — Limited  Needs  from  Traders'  Stores. — Skilful  Carvers  in 
Ivory. — Their  Town  Hall,  or  "Kashga." — They  Build  and  Support  no 
Churches  here. — Not  of  a  real  Religious  Cast,  as  the  Aleutians  are. — The 
Dogs  and  Sleds  ;  Importance  of  Them  here. — Great  Interest  of  the  Innuit  in 
Savage  Ceremonies. — The  Wild  Alaskan  Interior. — Its  Repellent  Features 
alike  Avoided  by  Savage  and  Civilized  Man.  — The  Indescribable  Misery 
of  Mosquitoes. — The  Desolation  of  Winter  in  this  Region. — The  Reindeer 
Slaughter-pen  on  the  Kvichak  River. — Amazing  Improvidence  of  the 
Innuit.  —The  Tragic  Death  of  Father  Juvenals,  on  the  Banks  of  the  Great 
Ilyamna  Lake,  1796. — The  Queer  Innuits  of  Togiak. — Immense  Muskrat 
Catch.  — The  Togiaks  are  the  Quakers  of  Alaska.  — The  Kuskok vim  Mouth 
a  Vast  Salmon-trap. — The  Ichthyophagi  of  Alaska. — Dense  Population. — 
Daily  Life  of  the  Fish-eaters. — Infernal  Mosquitoes  of  Kuskok  vim  ;  the 
Worst  in  Alaska. — Kolmakovsky  ;  its  History. 

"  NOOSHAGAK  "  is  not  a  very  euphonious  name,  yet  it  is  employed  in 
Alaska  to  express  the  whole  of  an  immense  area  that  backs  the 
borders  of  Bristol  Bay  ;  but,  when  strictly  applied,  it  is  the  desig- 
nation of  a  small  trading-post  at  the  head  of  a  large,  brackish  estu- 
ary of  the  sea,  into  which  the  Nooshagak  River  pours  its  heavy 
flood.  A  cruise  of  three  hundred  and  eighty  miles  to  the  northeast 
from  Oonalashka  in  a  trim  little  trading-schooner,  which  alone  can 
make  the  landing,  takes  you  to  this  old  and  well-known  Russian 
outpost ;  but  the  mariner  who  pilots  that  vessel  must  be  well  ac- 
quainted with  those  perilous  shoals  and  tide-rips  of  Bristol  Bay,  or 
you  will  never  disembark  at  the  foot  of  that  staircase  which  leads 
up  to  the  doors  of  Alexandrovsk.  The  river  here  is  a  broad  arm  of 
the  sea,  full  of  shifting  sand-bars  and  mud-flats  which  try  the  tern- 


3 


cr 

O     *• 


3  I 

fl 


INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND.  375 

per  of  the  most  patient  and  skilful  navigator.  It  runs  over  these 
shallows  at  certain  turns  of  the  tide,  like  the  ebb  and  flow  in  the 
Bay  of  Fundy,  with  a  big,  booming  tidal  wave,  or  "  bore."  The  cur- 
rent of  this  river  may  be  discerned  for  a  long  distance  out  into  Bris- 
tol Bay,  easily  traced  at  the  season  of  high  water  by  its  turbidity. 

Above  the  settlement  of  Nooshagak  that  river  rapidly  narrows 
into  a  width  of  half  a  mile  between  banks  for  a  long  distance  up  its 
winding  course.  It  is  very  deep,  with  a  succession  of  ripples,  or 
bars,  that  prevent  navigation.  When  the  northern  bend  is  reached, 
then  it  changes  to  a  brawling,  swift,  and  shoal  current,  with  higher 
rocky  banks  up  to  its  source  in  the  big  lake  which  bears  its  gut- 
tural name.  It  is  clear  and  pure  here,  and  is  not  muddy  until  it 
reaches  the  shelving,  alluvial  banks  of  its  lower  course,  which  pre- 
cipitate, by  their  caving  and  washing  out,  large  quantities  of  soil 
and  timber  into  the  stream.  Its  shores  are,  and  all  the  country  back 
is,  thickly  wooded  by  spruce  forests,  and  parked  with  grassy  slopes 
which  reach  out  here  and  there,  planted  sparsely  with  thickets  and 
clumps  of  graceful  birch-  and  poplar-trees.  These  nod  and  wave 
their  tremulous  foliage  as  the  summer  gusts  sweep  now  and  then 
over  them.  Countless  pools,  ponds,  and  lakes  nestle  in  the  moors 
and  in  the  forest  hollows,  upon  which  flocks  of  geese,  ducks,  and 
all  other  kinds  of  hardy  water-fowl  breed  and  moult  their  plumage 
during  the  short,  hot  summer.  The  traders  say  that  this  river  is 
the  only  one  in  Alaska,  of  the  least  magnitude,  which  has  banks  on 
both  sides  of  firm  soil  throughout  its  entire  course. 

This  site  of  Nooshagak  village  was  an  initial  point  of  Russian 
influence  and  trade  among  the  great  Innuit  people  of  Alaska,  who 
live  extended  in  their  numerous  settlements  from  the  head  of  Bris- 
tol Bay  clear  to  the  Arctic  Ocean.  Kolmakov  established  the  post 
in  1834,  and  named  it  Alexandrovsk.  A  simple  cylindrical  wooden 
shaft,  twenty  feet  high,  surmounted  with  a  globe,  stands  erected  to 
his  memory  on  a  small  hillock  overlooking  the  post  below.  The 
village  itself  is  located  on  the  abrupt  slopes  of  a  steep,  grassy  hill- 
side which  rises  from  the  river's  edge.  The  trading-stores  and  the 
residence  of  the  priest,  the  church,  log-huts  of  the  natives  and  their 
barraboras  are  planted  on  a  succession  of  three  earthen  terraces, 
one  rising  immediately  behind  the  other.  All  communication  from 
flat  to  flat  is  by  slippery  staircases,  which  are  fraught  with  great 
danger  to  a  thoughtless  pedestrian,  especially  when  fogs  moisten 
the  steps  and  darkness  obscures  his  vision. 


376  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

The  red-roofed,  yellow-painted  walls  of  the  old  Kussian  build- 
ings, the  smarter,  sprucer  dwellings  of  our  traders,  with  lazy, 
curling  wreaths  of  bluish  smoke,  are  brought  into  very  picturesque 
relief  by  the  verdant  slopes  of  Nooshagak's  hillside,  caught  up  and 
reflected  deeply  by  the  swiftly  flowing  current  of  the  river  below. 
The  natives  have  festooned  their  long  drying-frames  with  the  crim- 
son-tinted flesh  of  salmon  ;  bleached  drift-logs  are  scattered  in  pro- 
fusion upon  a  bare  sandy  high-water  bench  that  stretches  like  a 
buff-tinted  ribbon  just  beneath  them,  and  above,  the  dark,  turbid 
whirl  of  flood  and  eddy  so  characteristic  of  a  booming,  rising  river. 
A  gleam  of  light  falls  upon  a  broad  expanse  of  the  estuary  beyond 
that  point  under  which  the  schooner  lies  at  anchor,  and  brings  out 
the  thickly  wooded  banks  of  an  opposite  shore,  causing  us  to  note 
the  fact  that,  for  some  reason  or  other,  no  timber  seems  ever  to 
have  spread  down  so  far  toward  the  sea  on  this  side  of  the  stream, 
or  where  the  settlement  stands,  since  nothing  but  scattered  copses 
of  alder-  and  willow-bushes  grow  on  its  suburbs  or  anywhere  else 
as  far  as  an  eye  can  range  up  the  valley. 

We  notice  a  decided  difference  in  bearing  and  expression  among 
the  natives  here — nothing  like  what  we  have  studied  at  Oonalashka, 
Kadiak,  or  Sitka.  They  are  Innuits,  or  representatives  of  the  most 
populous  savage  family  indigenous  to  Alaska,  and  are  as  nomadic  as 
Bedouins.  They  are  the  least  changed  or  altered  by  contact  with 
our  race.  They  are  Eskimo,  strictly  speaking,  and  the  natives  of 
Kadiak  are  almost  strictly  related  to  them.  In  portraying  the  phy- 
sique, physiognomy,  and  disposition  of  these  people,  we  find  in  an 
average  Innuit  a  man  who  stands  about  five  feet  six  or  seven  inches 
in  his  heelless  boots  ;  his  skin  is  fair,  slightly  Mongolian  in  its  com- 
plexion and  facial  expression  ;  a  broad  face,  prominent  cheek-bones, 
a  large  mouth  with  full  lips,  small  black  eyes,  but  prominently 
set  in  their  sockets — not  under  a  lowering  brow,  as  in  the  case 
of  true  Indian  faces.  The  nose  is  very  insignificant  and  much  de- 
pressed, having  between  the  eyes  scarcely  any  bridge  at  all.  He 
has  an  abundance  of  coarse  black  hair  ;  never  any  of  a  reddish  hue, 
as  frequently  noted  among  the  Aleutes  when  first  discovered  and 
described  by  the  Eussians.  Up  to  the  age  of  thirty  years  an  In- 
nuit usually  keeps  his  hair  cut  pretty  close  to  his  scalp ;  some  of 
them  shave  the  occiput,  so  that  it  shines  like  a  billiard-ball.  After 
this  period  in  life  he  lets  it  grow  as  it  will,  wearing  it  in  ragged, 
unkempt  locks.  He  sometimes  will  sport  a  well-developed  mus- 


INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND.  377 

tache  and  chin-whisker,  of  which  he  is  as  proud  as  though  a 
Caucasian.  He  has  shapely  hands  and  feet ;  his  limbs  are  well 
made,  formed,  and  muscled.  An  Innuit  woman  is  proportionately 
smaller  than  the  man,  and,  when  young,  sometimes  she  is  not  un- 
pleasant to  look  at.  The  skin  of  her  cheeks  then  will  be  faintly 
suffused  with  blushes  of  natural  color,  her  lips  pouting  and  red, 
with  small,  tapering  hands  and  high-instepped  feet.  She  rarely 
pierces  her  lips  or  disfigures  her  nose  ;  she  lavishes  upon  her  child 
or  children  a  wealth  of  affectionate  attention — endows  them  with 
all  her  ornaments.  She  allows  her  hair  to  grow  to  its  full  length, 
gathers  it  up  behind  into  thick  braids,  or  else  it  is  bound  up  in 
ropes  lashed  by  copper  wire  or  sinews.  She  seldom  tattooes  her 


An   Innuit  Woman. 

skin  in  any  place  ;  a  faint  drawing  of  transverse  blue  lines  upon  the 
chin  and  cheeks  is  usually  made  by  her  best  friend  when  she  is 
married. 

We  are  not  reminded  of  the  clothing  stores  of  San  Francisco 
when  we  meet  Innuits  everywhere  between  Point  Barrow  and  Noo- 
shagak  ;  they  are  clad  in  the  primitive  garments  of  their  remote 
ancestry,  as  a  rule — a  few  exceptions  to  this  generalization  being 
those  individuals  who  are  living  constantly  about  the  widely  scat- 
tered trading-posts,  and  the  chapels,  or  missions,  located  in  their 
territory,  where  they  act  as  servants  or  interpreters.  The  conven- 
tional coat  of  these  people  is  the  "  parka,"  made  of  marmot  and 
muskrat  skins,  or  of  tanned  reindeer-hides,  with  enormous  winter 
hoods,  or  collars,  of  dog-hair  or  fox-fur.  This  parka  has  sleeves, 
and  compasses  the  body  of  the  wearer,  without  an  opening  either 


378  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

before  or  behind,  from  his  neck  to  his  feet.  His  head  is  thrust 
through  an  aperture  left  for  it,  with  a  puckering  string  which  draws 
it  up  snugly  around  the  neck.  In  winter  the  heavy  hood-collar,  or 
cowl,  is  fitted  so  as  to  be  drawn  over  his  entire  head  and  pulled 
down  to  the  eyes.  This  parka  is  worn  with  singular  ease  and 
abandon  ;  frequently  the  arms  are  withdrawn  from  the  big,  baggy 
sleeves  and  stowed  under  the  waist-slack  of  the  garment,  leaving 
these  empty  appendages  to  dangle.  Natives,  as  they  sit  down, 
draw  the  parka  out  and  over  the  knees,  still  keeping  their  arms  un- 
derneath ;  or,  when  on  the  trail,  and  the  wet  grass  and  bushes  make 
it  imperative,  the  parka  is  gathered  up  and  bound  by  a  leather 
thong-strap  or  girdle  of  sinews,  so  as  to  keep  its  bottom  border  dry 
and  as  high  as  the  knees  of  a  tramping  native  ;  the  baggy  folds 
of  it  then  give  its  wearer  a  grotesque  and  clumsy  figure  as  they 
bulge  out  over  his  hips  and  abdomen.  The  most  favored  and  valu- 
able parka  is  that  one  made  out  of  alder-bark  tanned  reindeer-skin, 
for  winter  use  ;  the  hair  is  worn  inside,  next  to  the  skin.  For  sum- 
mer styles  those  fashioned  out  of  the  breasts  of  water-fowl,  of  mar- 
mot- and  mink-skins,  are  most  common.  The  hood  is  never  attached 
to  the  parka  in  the  warmer  months  of  the  year.  It  is  a  very  capa- 
cious pouch  which,  when  not  in  service,  is  resting  in  thick  folds 
back  of  the  head  and  upon  the  shoulders.  It  is  ornamented  in  a 
variety  of  ways,  but  usually  a  thick  fringe  of  long-haired  dog-  or 
fox-fur  forms  its  border,  and  when  drawn  into  position  encircles 
the  wearer's  face  and  gives  it  a  wild  and  unkempt  air. 

The  only  underwear  which  a  Mahlemoot  affects  is  limited  to 
that  garment  which  we  call  a  shirt,  made  of  light  skins  or  of  cheap 
cotton  drillings  ;  if  it  is  of  skin,  it  is  worn  from  father  to  son,  and 
becomes  a  real  heirloom  highly  polished  and  redolent.  Their  trou- 
sers are,  for  both  sexes,  a  pair  of  thin  skin  or  cotton  drawers,  puck- 
ered at  the  ankles  and  bound  about  with  the  uppers  of  their 
moccasons,  or  else  enclosed  by  the  tops  to  their  reindeer-boots, 
which  are  the  prevalent  covering  for  their  feet.  Such  are  the  char- 
acteristics of  a  costume  worn  by  much  more  than  half  the  entire 
aboriginal  population  of  Alaska  ;  but  when  we  come  to  inspect 
their  dwellings  we  find  a  greater  variety  of  housing  than  indexed  in 
dressing. 

A  very  great  majority  of  the  Innuits  live  in  a  house  that  out- 
wardly resembles  a  circular  mound  of  earth,  seven  or  eight  feet  high, 
and  thirty  or  forty  feet  in  circumference.  It  is  overgrown  with 


INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND. 


379 


rank  grasses,  littered  with  all  sorts  of  utensils,  weapons,  sleds,  and 
other  Eskimo  furniture.  A  small  spiral  coil  of  smoke  rises  from  a 
hole  in  its  apex,  a  dog  or  two  are  crouching  upon  it,  and  children 
climb  up  and  roll  down  its  sides,  scattering  bones  and  fragments  of 
fish  and  meat  as  they  eat  in  the  irregular  fashion  of  these  people. 
A  rude  pole  scaffolding  stands  close  by,  upon  which,  high  above  the 
reach  of  dogs,  is  a  wooden  cache,  containing  all  winter  stores  of  dried 
provision,  "  ukali, "  and  the  like.  This  hut  is  usually  right  down  upon 
the  sea-beach,  just  above  high  tide,  or  high-water  mark,  on  the  river 
banks,  for  these  savages  draw  their  sustenance  largely,  even  wholly 
in  many  instances,  from  the  piscine  life  of  those  northern  streams. 


An  Innuit  Home  on  the  Kuskokvim. 

All  these  tribes  have  summer  dwellings  distinct  from  those  used 
during  the  winter.  For  the  winter  houses  a  square  excavation  of 
about  ten  feet  or  more  is  made,  in  the  comers  of  which  posts  of 
drift-wood  or  whale-ribs  from  eight  to  ten  feet  in  height  are  set  up ; 
the  walls  are  formed  by  laying  posts  of  drift-wood  one  above  the 
other  against  the  corner-posts ;  outside  of  this  another  wall  is  built, 
sometimes  of  stone,  sometimes  of  logs,  the  intervals  being  filled 
with  earth  or  rubble  ;  the  whole  of  the  structure,  including  the 
roof,  is  covered  with  sods,  leaving  a  small  opening  on  top,  that 
can  be  closed  by  a  frame  over  which  a  thin,  transparent  seal-skin  is 
tightly  drawn.  The  entrance  to  one  of  these  houses  consists  of  a 
narrow,  low,  underground  passage  from  ten  to  twelve  feet  in  length, 
through  which  an  entrance  can  only  be  accomplished  on  hands  and 


380  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

knees.  The  interior  arrangement  of  such  a  winter  house  is  sim- 
ple, and  is  nearly  the  same  with  all  these  tribes.  A  piece  of  bear- 
or  reindeer-skin  is  hung  before  an  inner  opening  of  the  doorway ; 
in  the  centre  of  the  enclosure  is  a  fireplace,  which  is  a  square  ex- 
cavation directly  under  that  smoke-hole  in  the  roof  ;  the  floor  is 
rarely  planked,  and  frequently  two  low  platforms,  about  four  feet  in 
width,  extend  along  the  sides  of  the  house  from  the  entrance  to  the 
back,  and  covered  with  mats  and  skins  which  serve  as  beds  at  night. 
In  the  larger  dwellings,  occupied  by  more  than  one  family,  the 
sleeping-places  of  each  are  separated  from  each  other  by  suspended 
mats,  or  simply  by  a  piece  of  wood.  All  the  bladders  containing 
oil,  the  wooden  vessels,  kettles,  and  other  domestic  utensils,  are 
kept  in  the  front  part  of  the  dwelling,  and  before  each  sleeping- 
place  there  is  generally  a  block  of  wood  upon  which  is  placed  the 
oil-lamp  used  for  heating  and  cooking. 

The  only  ingress  or  egress  is  afforded  by  a  small,  low,  irregu- 
larly shaped  aperture  (it  cannot  rightfully  be  called  a  door),  through 
which  the  natives  stoop  and  enter,  passing  down  a  foot  or  two 
through  a  short,  depressed  passage  that  is  created  by  the  thickness 
of  the  walls  to  the  hut ;  the  floor  is  hard-tramped  earth,  and  the 
ground-plan  of  it  a  rude  circle,  or  square,  twelve,  fifteen,  or  twenty 
feet  in  diameter,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  in  which  the  only  light  of 
day  comes  feebly  in  from  a  small  smoke-opening  at  the  apex  of  the 
roof,  the  ceiling  of  which  rises  tent-like  from  the  floor.  A  faint, 
smouldering  fire  is  always  made  directly  in  the  centre,  and  the  at- 
mosphere of  the  apartment  is  invariably  thick  and  surcharged  with 
its  combustion. 

Hard  and  rude  are  the  beds  of  the  Innuit — a  clumsy  shelf  of 
poles  is  slightly  elevated  above  the  earth,  and  placed  close  against 
the  walls  ;  upon  this  staging  the  skins  of  bears  and  reindeer,  seals, 
and  even  walrus-hides,  together  with  mats  of  plaited  sedge  and 
bark,  are  laid  ;  sometimes  these  bedsteads  are  mere  platforms  of  sod 
and  peat.  If  the  hut  stands  in  a  situation  where  it  is  exposed  to 
the  full  force  of  boisterous  storms,  then  the  architect  builds  a  rough 
hallway  of  earth  and  sods,  with  a  bulging  expansion,  whereby  room 
is  given  in  which  to  shelter  his  dogs  and  keep  many  utensils  and 
traps  under  cover.  He  also,  in  warm  weather,  lives  outside  of  this 
winter  hut,  to  a  great  degree,  when  at  home  ;  and,  for  that  pur- 
pose, he  builds  a  summer  cook-house,  or  kitchen,  which  resembles 
the  igloo  itself,  only  it  is  not  more  than  five  or  six  feet  square,  and 


INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND.  381 

no  higher  than  a  stooping  posture  within  warrants.  This  is  also  a 
great  resort  for  his  dogs,  which  renders  the  place  very  offensive 
to  us. 

The  summer  houses  are  erected  above  ground,  and  are  generally 
slight  pole  frames,  roofed  with  skins  and  open  in  front ;  fire  is 
rarely  made  in  them,  and  therefore  they  have  no  opening  in  the 
roof,  all  cooking  being  done  in  the  open  air  during  fine  weather. 
They  seldom  have  flooring,  but  otherwise  the  interior  arrangements 
resemble  those  of  the  winter  houses.  The  store-houses  of  all  our 
Eskimo  tribes  are  set  on  posts  at  a  height  of  from  eight  to  ten 
feet  above  the  ground,  to  protect  them  from  foxes,  wolves,  and  dogs. 
They  have  generally  a  small  square  opening  in  front  that  can  be 
closed  with  a  sliding  board,  and  which  is  reached  by  means  of  a 
notched  stick  of  wood.  These  boxes  are  seldom  more  than  eight 
feet  square  by  three  or  four  feet  in  height. 

The  routine  of  life  which  these  natives  of  the  Nooshagak  and 
Kuskokvim  valleys  and  streams  follow  is  one  of  much  activity — they 
are  on  the  tramp  or  are  paddling  up  and  down  the  rivers  pretty 
much  all  of  the  time.  A  year  is  divided  up  by  them  about  as 
follows  :  In  February  they  prepare  to  go  to  the  mountains,  and  go 
then  most  of  them  do,  though  some  will  be  as  late  as  April  in  get- 
ting away  on  account  of  their  children,  or  of  sheer  laziness.  They 
move  with  the  entire  family  outfit,  bag  and  baggage,  dogs,  sleds, 
and  boats.  They  settle  down  along  by  the  small  mountain  streams, 
trap  martens,  shoot  deer,  and  dig  out  beaver.  February  and  March 
are  the  best  months  for  marten,  April  and  May  for  the  beaver,  bear, 
and  land-otter. 

By  June  10th  they  return  to  their  winter  villages  and  visit  the 
trading-posts.  They  then  begin  their  preparations  for  salmon-fish- 
ing, getting  their  traps  into  shape  so  as  to  be  used  effectively  when 
those  fish  begin  to  run.  They  air-dry  salmon  on  frames,  and  put  the 
heads  in  holes  and  allow  them  to  rot  slightly  before  eating ;  also 
the  spawn,  which,  however,  is  preserved  in  oil,  and  used  as  a  great 
delicacy  during  their  own  festivals  in  the  midwinter  season.  The 
salmon-fishing  is  all  over  about  July  20th.  By  August  10th  these 
nomads  return  to  the  mountains,  leaving  the  old  women  and  young- 
est children  with  their  mothers  in  charge  of  the  caches  at  the  vil- 
lages. This  time  they  go  for  reindeer,  which  have  just  shed  their 
hair  and  are  in  the  full  beauty  of  new,  fine,  sleek  coats.  They 
hunt  these  animals  from  that  time  until  the  middle  of  September, 


382  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

when  the  fur  of  the  beaver  is  again  in  prime  condition;  then  Castor 
canadensis  receives  their  undivided  attention.  They  catch  these 
giant  rodents  in  wooden  "dead-falls,"  and  also  by  breaking  open 
the  dams,  which  causes  the  water  to  suddenly  leave  the  beavers  fully 
exposed  to  the  spears  of  their  savage  human  enemies. 

When  the  first  snow  flies  in  October  they  rig  up  rude  deer-skin 
boats,  like  the  "  bull-boats  "  on  the  Missouri,  and  float  all  their  traps 
and  rude  equipage  down  the  river  back  from  whence  they  started. 
They  all  return  for  the  winter  by  the  middle  of  October ;  then,  with- 
out going  far  from  the  vicinity  of  their  settlements,  they  renew  and 
set  up  fresh  dead-fall  traps  for  marten — they  never  go  any  distance 
from  home  for  this  little  animal,  and  when  ice  forms  on  the  rivers, 
about  the  end  of  October  or  early  in  November,  they  put  their  white- 
fish  traps  under  it.  The  marten- trapping  is  abandoned  in  Decem- 
ber, because  the  intense,  stormy,  and  cold  weather  then  drives  these 
pine-weasels  into  winter  holes,  where  they  remain  semi-dormant 
until  the  end  or  middle  of  February.  During  this  period  of  severe 
wintry  weather  the  Innuit  gives  himself  up  to  unrestrained  loafing 
and  vigorous  dancing  festivals,  which  last  until  the  year  is  again 
renewed  by  going  out  to  the  mountains  in  February. 

These  natives  of  the  Nooshagak  and  Kuskokvim  regions  have  a 
large  and  varied  natural  food-supply.  They  have  reindeer-meat, 
the  flesh  of  moose,  of  bears,  and  of  all  the  smaller  fur-bearing 
animals  found  in  this  territory — the  list  is  a  full  one,  comprising 
land-otters,  cross,  red,  and  black  foxes,  the  mink,  the  marten,  the 
marmot,  and  the  ground-squirrel,  or  "  yeavrashka,"  which  last  is 
the  most  abundant.  The  bears  are  all  brown  in  this  country — no 
black  ones.  They  also  secure  large  gray  and  white  wolves,  while 
those  who  live  right  on  the  coast  of  Bering  Sea  get  walrus,  the 
big  "mahklok"  seal,  and  a  little  harbor  phoca,  or  "nearpah." 

They  have  a  great  abundance  of  water-fowl,  such  as  geese, 
ducks,  and  the  small  waders,  and  they  occasionally  kill  a  beluga,  or 
white  grampus,  and  at  still  more  rare  intervals  they  find  a  stranded 
whale,  which  is  set  upon  and  eaten.  They  save  carefully  all  the  oil 
which  comes  from  marine  mammals  ;  they  treasure  it  up  in  seal- 
skin bags  that  are  placed  high  up  above  the  reach  of  dogs  and 
foxes  on  a  frame  scaffold  which  adjoins  every  hut.  Fish-oil  is  also 
secured  in  the  same  manner  ;  it  answers  a  threefold  purpose — it 
serves  for  food,  for  fuel,  and  for  light,  and  it  is  a  luxurious  skin 
and  hair  dressing  for  them  all,  old  and  young. 


INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND. 


383 


Fish  they  capture  in  the  greatest  abundance,  and  the  variety  is 
quite  fair.  Salmon  is  the  staff,  and  is  found  in  all  of  the  thousand 
and  one  lakes  and  sluggish  or  rapid  streams  that  run  from  them 
into  the  greater  rivers,  where  a  mighty  rush  of  the  same  fish  is  an- 
nually made  up  in  June  and  July  from  Bering  Sea.  In  all  of  the 
deeper  lakes,  and  the  big  rivers,  a  variety  of  large  white-fish  and 
trout  are  found,  especially  prized  and  searched  for  by  these  people 
in  midwinter,  when  they  are  trapped  there  in  wicker-work  baskets 
and  pole  weirs  under  ice. 


The   Big  Mahklok. 

In  round  numbers  these  Eskimo,  or  Innuits,  of  Alaska,  number 
nearly  eighteen  thousand  souls ;  they  inhabit  the  entire  coast-line 
of  Bering  Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean,  with  an  exception  of  the  Aleu- 
tian chain  and  that  portion  of  the  peninsula  west  of  Oogashik.  The 
numerous  subdivisions  of  this  great  family  are  based  wholly  upon 
dialectic  differentiation,  and  as  its  elaboration  would  entail  a  dreary 
and  uninteresting  chapter  upon  any  reader  save  a  studious  ethnolo- 
gist, it  will  not  be  itemized  here.  These  Eskimo  are  all  hunters 
and  fishermen  ;  those  land  animals  to  which  we  have  made  allusion 
are  pursued  by  them  at  the  proper  seasons  of  the  year.  They  do 
not  have  much,  in  the  aggregate,  of  value  to  a  trader  ;  it  is  chiefly 


384  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

oil  and  walrus-ivory.  Their  proximity  to  a  relatively  warm  coast 
renders  the  furs  which  they  get  of  small  value  comparatively,  since 
these  pelts  are  paler  and  lighter-haired  than  those  brought  in  from 
the  distant  interior,  where  the  winters  are  vastly  colder  and  longer. 
But  an  Innuit  does  not  require  a  great  deal  from  the  trader — he  is 
very  much  more  independent  than  is  his  semi-civilized  Aleutian 
brother  ;  his  wants  are  only  a  small  supply  of  lead  and  powder,  of 
sugar  and  of  tobacco,  a  little  red  cloth  and  a  small  sack  of  flour  which 
suffice  for  a  large  Innuit  family  during  the  year.  The  flour  he  makes 
up  into  pancakes  and  fries  them  in  rancid  oil ;  but,  as  a  rule,  all  cook- 
ing is  a  mere  boiling  or  stewing  of  fish  and  meat  in  sheet-iron  or  cop- 
per kettles.  In  those  huts  where  they  can  afford  to  use  tea,  a  small 
number  of  earthenware  cups  and  saucers  will  be  found  carefully 
treasured  in  a  little  cupboard  ;  but  they  never  set  a  table  or  think 
of  such  a  thing,  except  those  highly  favored  individuals  who  live  as 
servants  about  the  trading-posts  and  missions,  where  they  do  boil 
a  "samovar"  (tea-urn)  and  spread  a  cloth  over  the  top  of  a  box  or 
rude  table  upon  which  to  place  their  teacups. 

Down  here  at  Nooshagak  these  natives  have  earned  a  distinction 
of  being  the  most  skilful  sculptors  of  the  whole  northern  range. 
Their  carvings  in  walrus-ivory  are  exceedingly  curious,  and  beauti- 
fully wrought  in  many  examples.  The  patience  and  fidelity  with 
which  they  cut  from  walrus-tusks  delicate  patterns  furnished  them 
by  the  traders  are  equal  in  many  respects  to  that  remarkable  display 
made  in  the  same  line  by  the  Chinese,  and  so  much  admired. 
Time  to  them,  at  Nooshagak,  is  never  reckoned,  and  it  does  not 
raise  a  ripple  of  concern  in  the  Innuit's  mind  when,  as  he  carves 
upon  a  tusk  of  white  ivory,  he  pauses  to  think  whether  he  shall  be 
six  hours  or  six  months  engaged  upon  the  task.  Shut  up  as  he  is 
from  December  until  the  end  of  February  in  his  dark  and  smoky 
hut,  he  welcomes  the  task  as  one  which  enables  him  to  "  kill  time  " 
most  agreeably,  and  bring  in  a  trifle,  at  least,  to  him  from  the  trader 
in  the  way  of  credit  or  of  direct  revenue. 

All  of  these  people,  when  they  go  hunting,  use  fire-arms  of  mod- 
ern patterns  and  many  old  flint-lock  muskets  ;  for  fish  and  bird- 
capture  they  never  waste  any  precious  ammunition  ;  they  employ 
spears  and  arrows  of  most  artful  construction  and  effective  service. 
But  a  large  number  of  those  very  primitive  Eskimo,  the  Togiaks, 
just  west  and  north  of  Nooshagak,  use  nothing  at  all  in  the  chase 
other  than  the  same  antique  bows  and  spears  of  a  remote  ancestry. 


INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND. 


385 


The  disposition  of  these  people  is  one  of  greater  bonhomie  than 
that  evidenced  by  the  Aleutes  or  the  Koloshians,  who  are  rather 
taciturn.  The  Innuit  is  very  independent  in  his  bearing,  without 
being  at  all  vindictive  or  ugly.  He  is  light-hearted,  enjoys  conversa- 
tion with  his  fellows,  tells  jokes  with  great  gusto,  sings  rude  songs 
with  much  animation,  in  excellent  time  but  with  no  music,  and 
dances  with  exceeding  exhilaration  during  the  progress  of  those 
savage  festivals  which  he  calls  in  to  enliven  a  long  dreary  winter 
solstice. 

Such  a  man  is  naturally  quite  sociable.  Hence  we  find  in  every 
Innuit  settlement,  big  or  little,  a  town  hall,  or  "  kashga."  This  is  a 
building  put  up  after  the  pattern  of  all  winter  houses  in  the  vil- 
lage, but  of  very  much  larger  dimensions  ;  some  of  the  more  popu- 
lous hamlets  boast  of  a  kashga  which  will  measure  as  much  as  sixty 


The  Kashga. 

feet  square,  and  be  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  high  under  its  smoky 
rafters.  A  raised  platform  from  the  earth,  of  rough-hewn  planks, 
runs  all  around  the  walls  of  the  interior,  and  in  the  largest  council- 
houses  a  series  of  three  tiers  of  such  staging  is  observed.  The  fire- 
place in  the  centre  is  large,  often  three  or  four  feet  deep  and  eight 
feet  square  ;  on  ordinary  days  in  the  spring,  and  during  the  sum- 
mer and  early  fall,  when  no  fire  is  wanted,  it  is  covered  with  planks. 
An  underground  tunnel-entrance  to  the  kashga  is  made  just  as  it  is 
into  some  of  the  family  huts,  only  here  it  is  divided  at  the  end  ;  one 
branch  leads  to  a  fireplace  below  the  flooring,  and  the  other  rises 
to  the  main  apartment.  The  natives  are  obliged  to  crawl  on  all 
fours  when  they  enter  that  underground  passage  or  leave  the 
kashga  through  its  dark  opening. 

This  is  the  great  and  sole  rendezvous  of  the  men  and  older  boys 
of  most  settlements.     The  bachelors  and  widowers  sleep  here  and 
25 


386  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

prepare  their  simple  meals ;  the  village  guest  and  visitors  of  the 
male  sex  are  all  quartered  here ;  the  discussion  of  all  the  town  af- 
fairs is  conducted  here  ;  the  tanning  of  skins,  the  plaiting  and 
weaving  of  wicker-work  fish-traps,  and  the  manufacture  of  sleds 
and  dog-harness,  spear-  and  arrow-heads,  and  carving  of  wood  and 
ivory — in  fact,  everything  done  by  these  people  under  shelter,  of 
that  kind,  is  executed  on  the  platforms  of  a  kashga.  It  is  the 
theatre  for  the  absurd  and  vigorous  masked  dances  and  mummery 
of  their  festivals,  and  above  all,  it  is  the  spot  chosen  for  that  vile 
ammoniacal  bath  of  the  Eskimo,  the  most  popular  of  all  their  rec- 
reations. 

The  daily  routine  of  living  as  practised  by  an  Innuit  family  is 
exceedingly  simple.     The  head  of  the  household  usually  sleeps  over 


Section  showing  Subterranean  Entrance  and  Interior  of  a  Kashga. 

night  in  the  kashga,  as  do  all  of  his  peers.  His  wife  in  the  early 
morning  rolls  out  of  her  rude  deer-skins,  retucks  her  parka  about 
her  hips,  and  starts  up  the  smouldering  fire  which  she  banked  with 
ashes  before  going  to  sleep.  A  little  meat  or  fish  is  soon  half- 
boiled,  and  a  small  kantag  of  oil  is  decanted,  a  handful  of  dried 
berries  thrown  into  it,  and  perhaps  she  has  a  modicum  of  rotten 
fish-roe  to  add.  This  she  takes  out  to  her  husband  in  the  kashga, 
rousing  him,  if  he  is  not  awake,  with  a  gentle  but  firm  admonition. 
A  large  bowl  of  fresh  water  is  also  brought  by  her,  and  then  every- 
thing is  before  the  husband  for  his  breakfast.  She  returns  to  her 
hut  after  he  has  finished,  and  feeds  her  children  and  herself.  If 
she  or  her  husband  has  a  male  visitor,  he  is  served  in  the  same  way. 
When  the  evening  meal  is  ready,  sometimes  the  men  go  home  and 


INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND.  387 

dine  with  their  families  ;  but  the  women  and  children  invariably 
eat  at  home,  and  when  they  wait  upon  the  males  in  the  town  hall 
they  always  turn  their  backs  to  them  while  the  men  are  dining,  it 
being  considered  a  gross  breach  of  good  manners  for  a  woman  to 
look  at  a  man  when  he  is  eating. 

After  breakfast  the  male  Innuits  start  out,  if  the  weather  per- 
mits, to  hunt  or  fish,  as  the  case  may  be.  If  a  driving  storm  pre- 
vents them,  then  in-door  work  is  resumed  or  recourse  to  sleep  again 
assumed.  At  some  time  in  the  afternoon  the  fire  is  usually  drawn 
from  the  hot  stoves  on  the  hearth,  the  water  and  a  kantag  of  cham- 
ber-lye poured  over  them,  which,  arising  in  dense  clouds  of  vapor, 
gives  notice  (by  its  presence  and  its  horrible  ammoniacal  odor)  to 
the  delighted  inmates  that  the  bath  is  on.  The  kashga  is  heated 
to  suffocation,  it  is  full  of  smoke,  and  the  outside  men  run  in  from 
their  huts,  with  wisps  of  dry  grass  for  towels,  and  bunches  of  alder- 
twigs  to  flog  their  naked  bodies.  They  throw  off  their  garments  ; 
they  shout  and  dance  and  whip  themselves  into  profuse  perspira- 
tion as  they  caper  in  the  hot  vapor.  More  of  their  disgusting  sub- 
stitute for  soap  is  rubbed  on,  and  produces  a  lather  which  they 
rinse  off  with  cold  water ;  and,  to  cap  the  full  enjoyment  of  this 
satanic  bath,  these  naked  actors  rush  out  and  roll  in  a  snow-bank 
or  plunge  into  the  icy  flood  of  some  lake  or  river  adjoining,  as  the 
season  warrants.  This  is  the  most  enjoyable  occasion  of  an  In- 
nuit's  existence,  so  he  solemnly  affirms.  Nothing  else  affords  him 
a  tithe  of  the  infinite  pleasure  which  this  orgie  gives  him.  To  us, 
however,  there  is  nothing  so  offensive  about  him  as  that  stench 
which  such  a  performance  arouses. 

When  a  bath  is  over,  the  smoke-hole  is  reopened  (it  was  closed 
during  the  process  !),  and  fresh  air  descends  upon  those  men  who 
sit  around  upon  the  platforms  stupefied  by  that  smoke  and  weak 
from  their  profuse  perspiration.  Slowly  these  terrible  odors  leave 
the  kashga,  and  only  the  minor  ones  remain,  rendering  it  quite 
habitable  once  more.  Night  comes  on  :  the  huge  stone  lamps  are 
filled  with  seal-oil  and  lighted  ;  the  men  soon  lop  down  for  sleep  in 
their  reindeer-skins  or  parkas,  removing  their  trousers  only,  which 
they  roll  up  and  use  as  pillows,  tucking  the  parka  snugly  over  and 
around  their  bended  knees,  which  are  drawn  up  tightly  to  the  ab- 
domen. In  the  morning  whoever  happens  to  awake  first  relights 
the  lamp,  if  any  of  the  fluid  remains  over ;  if  not,  he  goes  to  his 
own  cache  and  gets  a  supply.  If  he  is  a  bachelor,  he  attends  then 


388 


OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 


to  making  a  fresh  fire  in  the  hearth  below  and  prepares  his  coarse 
breakfast. 

The  women  assist  their  husbands  in  harnessing  and  unharness- 
ing the  dogs  ;  they  go  out  and  gather  the  firewood,  and  employ 
themselves  in  sewing,  patching,  and  making  thread  from  deer-ten- 
dons. They  plait  grass  mats  and  weave  grass  stockings,  because 
nearly  all  of  the  coast  Innuits  wear  socks  very  skilfully  made  of 
dried  grass.  The  boys  and  girls  scatter  about  the  vicinity  looking 
after  their  snares  and  traps,  or  engage,  in  hilarious  groups,  playing 
at  ball  and  leap-frog  games,  tag,  and  jumping  matches.  They  har- 
ness up  the  young  dogs  and  the  pups,  and  sport  for  hours  at  a 
time  with  them. 


"  Tatlah  ;  "  an  Innuit  Dog. 

These  people  are  savages,  and  not  at  all  affected  by  the  earnest 
and  persistent  attempts  of  the  Russian  priests  to  Christianize  them. 
They  are  even  less  influenced  by  the  teachings  of  missionaries  than 
the  Siwashes  of  the  Sitkan  archipelago,  and  that  is  saying  a  great 
deal  for  their  hardness  of  heart.  They  are  a  brave  race,  and  have 
displayed  the  utmost  physical  courage  in  fighting  their  way  up  the 
great  rivers,  Yukon,  Kuskokvim,  and  Nooshagak,  whereby  they  dis- 
placed and  destroyed  the  Indians  who  once  lived  there.  The  Kolt- 
chanes,  or  Ingaleeks  of  the  interior,  who  disputed  that  privilege 
with  them,  bear  cheerful  witness  to  this  fact.  But  all  such  strife 
between  the  two  great  families  is  only  known  to  us  by  legends 
which  they  recite  of  ancient  time.  No  trace  of  recent  war  can  be 
found  among  them. 


INNTTIT   LIFE   AND   LAND.  389 

They  have  no  ear  for  music  ;  they  are  not  fond  of  it  like  the 
Aleutes,  yet  they  keep  perfect  time  to  cultivated  tunes  and  melo- 
dies of  our  own  order.  The  song  of  an  Innuit  is  essentially  like 
that  of  his  Sitkan  relative  :  it  is  usually  a  weird  dirge,  monotonous, 
and  long-drawn  out,  accompanied  by  a  regular  and  rhythmic  beat- 
ing of  a  rude  drum,  or  a  dry  stick,  or  resonant  bag.  Some  of  the 
native  Innuit  chantings,  when  rendered  intelligible  to  us,  have  a 
plaintive  pathos  running  through  them  which  is  attractive  and  are 
simple  in  composition  ;  but  such  ballads  are  very,  very  rare.  The 
majority  are  tedious  and  boastful  recitations  of  a  singer's  achieve- 
ments on  land  or  water  when  engaged  in  hunting  or  fishing.  Their 
mythology  is  the  rudest  and  the  least  ornate  of  all  savage  races,  un- 
less it  be  that  perfect  vacuum  of  the  Australasians  and  Terra  del 
Fuegians. 

These  savages  respect  the  dead,  but  they  fear  the  sick.  When 
death  invades  an  Innuit  family,  taking  the  husband,  or  the  wife,  or 
a  child,  the  survivors  eat  nothing,  after  the  decease  of  the  relative, 
but  sour  or  last  year's  food,  and  refrain  from  going  out  or  from 
work  of  any  sort  for  a  period  of  twenty  days.  They  seat  themselves 
in  one  corner  of  the  hut,  or  "  kahsime,"  with  their  backs  toward 
the  door.  Every  five  days  they  wash  themselves,  otherwise  death 
would  promptly  come  to  them  again.  The  body  of  the  dead  native 
is  composed  in  a  sitting  position,  with  its  knees  drawn  up  to  the 
stomach  and  its  arms  clasped  around  them.  It  is  placed  in  one 
corner,  with  its  head  against  the  wall.  The  inhabitants  of  that  vil- 
lage where  the  dead  man  has  lived  voluntarily  bring  to  the  hut 
dresses  of  reindeer-skin,  in  one  of  which  the  corpse  is  shrouded. 
A  coffin,  or  box,  is  prepared  at  some  selected  spot  outside  of  the 
village,  set  up  a  few  feet  from  the  ground,  on  four  stoutly  driven 
posts,  and  in  it  the  body  is  deposited.  Near  by  is  planted  a  square 
board  or  smoothly  hewn  plank,  upon  which  rude  figures  are  painted 
of  the  animals  that  the  deceased  was  most  fond  of  hunting,  such  as 
a  beaver,  a  deer,  a  fish,  or  seal.  A  few  of  his  most  cherished  be- 
longings are  laid  in  the  coffin  with  him,  but  the  balance  of  his  prop- 
erty is  divided  among  his  family.* 


*  The  Indians,  or  Koltchanes,  of  the  Alaskan  interior  burn  their  dead.  If 
anyone  dies  in  the  winter,  the  relatives  carry  that  corpse  everywhere  with 
them,  use  it  at  night  in  the  place  of  a  pillow,  and  only  burn  it  at  the  com- 
mencement of  warm  weather. 


390  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

A  festival  in  honor  of  the  spirits  of  land  and  sea,  and  in  memory 
of  deceased  kinsmen,  is  celebrated  annually  in  the  month  of  Octo- 
ber or  November.  Lieutenant  Zagoskin,*  who  spent  five  years 
among  these  people  exploring  the  Yukon  and  Kuskokvim  Eivers, 
has  given  us  full  details  of  that  strange  mummery  and  capers 
which  characterize  Innuit  festivals  and  dances.  What  he  saw  be- 
tween 1842  and  1845,  and  so  graphically  narrated,  is  to  be  seen  sub- 
stantially the  same  now  everywhere  among  these  people,  who  are 
almost  wholly  unchanged  from  their  primeval  habits  as  they  live 
to-day. 

Of  the  tribal  organization  of  these  people  but  little  is  known  : 
yet,  there  seems  to  be  no  recognized  chieftainship — each  isolated 
settlement  generally  contains  one  man  who  makes  himself  promi- 
nent by  superintending  all  intercourse  and  traffic  with  visitors. 
The  profits  accruing  to  him  from  this  position  give  him  some  slight 
influence  among  his  people  ;  but  the  oomailik  (oomuialik  of  Zago- 
skin), as  these  middlemen  or  spokesmen  are  called,  possess  no  au- 
thority over  the  people  of  their  village,  who  pay  far  more  attention 
to  the  advice  or  threats  of  sorcerers,  shamans,  or  "medicine  men." 
In  the  festivals,  consisting  of  feasting,  singing,  and  dancing,  with 
which  these  hyperboreans  while  away  the  long  winter  nights,  the 
shamans  also  play  a  prominent  part,  directing  the  order  of  the  per- 
formances and  the  manufacture  of  masks,  costumes,  etc.,  while  the 
oomailik  or  spokesman  sinks  back  into  insignificance  for  the  time 
being. 

All  these  games,  both  private  and  public,  take  place  in  the 
kashga.  At  the  public  performances  the  dancers  and  singers,  men 
and  women,  stand  around  the  fire-hole  ;  and  the  men,  to  the  time 
of  the  drum  and  the  singing,  go  through  various  contortions  of  the 
body,  shifting  from  one  foot  to  the  other  without  moving  from  the 
spot,  the  skill  of  the  dancer  being  displayed  only  in  the  endurance 
and  flexibility  of  his  muscles.  The  women,  on  the  other  hand,  with 
their  eyes  cast  down,  motionless,  with  the  exception  of  a  spasmodic 
twitching  of  the  hands,  stand  around  in  a  circle,  forming,  we  may 


*  The  Russian  Imperial  Government  in  1841  ordered  Governor  Etholin, 
of  Sitka,  to  select  a  skilled  engineer  to  make  this  exploration,  and  accord- 
ingly, on  July  10,  1842,  Zagoskin  was  started  for  St.  Michael's.  His  expedi- 
tion was  the  most  extended  of  any  white  man  ever  made  in  Alaska  prior  to 
American  search. 


INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND.  391 

say,  a  living  frame  to  the  animated  picture  within.  The  less  mo- 
tion a  dancer  displays  the  greater  his  skill.  There  is  nothing  inde- 
cent in  the  dances  of  our  sea-board  natives.  The  dancing  dress  of 
the  men  consists  of  short  tight  drawers  made  of  white  reindeer- 
skin  and  the  summer  boots  of  soft  moose-hide,  while  the  women 
on  those  occasions  only  add  ornaments,  such  as  rings  and  bracelets 
and  bead-pendants,  to  their  common  dress,  frequently  weighting 
themselves  down  with  ten  or  fifteen  pounds  of  these  baubles. 

An  entertainment  of  the  women  was  described  by  Zagoskin  as 
follows : 

"  We  entered  the  kashga  by  the  common  passage  and  found  the 
guests  already  assembled,  but  of  the  landladies  nothing  was  to  be 
seen.  On  three  sides  of  the  apartment  stone  lamps  were  lighted  ; 
the  fire-hole  was  covered  with  boards,  one  of  them  having  a  circular 
opening,  through  which  the  women  were  to  make  their  appear- 
ance. Two  other  burning  lamps  were  placed  in  front  of  the  fire- 
hole.  The  guests  then  formed  a  chorus  and  began  to  sing  to  the 
sound  of  the  drum,  two  men  keeping  them  in  order  by  beating  time 
with  sticks  adorned  with  wolfs'  tails  and  gulls'  wings.  Thus  a  good 
half-hour  passed  by.  Of  the  song  my  interpreter  told  me  that  it 
consisted  of  pleasantry  directed  against  the  women  ;  that  it  was  evi- 
dent they  had  nothing  to  give,  as  they  had  not  shown  themselves 
for  so  long  a  time.  Another  song  praised  the  housewifely  accom- 
plishments of  some  woman  whose  appearance  was  impatiently  ex- 
pected with  a  promised  trencher  of  the  mixed  mess  of  reindeer-fat 
and  berries.  No  sooner  was  this  song  finished  than  that  woman  ap- 
peared and  was  received  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  The  dish 
was  set  before  the  men,  and  she  retreated  amid  vociferous  com- 
pliments on  her  culinary  skill.  She  was  followed  by  another  wom- 
an. The  beating  of  drums  increased  in  violence  and  the  word- 
ing of  the  song  was  changed.  Standing  up  in  the  centre  of  the 
circle  this  woman  began  to  relate,  in  mimicry  and  gesture,  how  she 
obtained  the  fat,  how  she  stored  it  in  various  receptacles,  how  she 
cleansed  and  melted  it,  and  then,  placing  a  kantag  upon  her  head, 
she  invited  the  spectators  with  gestures  to  approach.  The  song 
went  on,  while  eagerness  to  partake  of  the  promised  luxury  lighted 
up  the  faces  of  the  crowd.  At  last  the  wooden  spoons  were  dis- 
tributed, one  to  each  man,  and  nothing  was  heard  for  a  time  but  the 
guzzling  of  the  luscious  fluid.  Another  woman  advanced,  followed 
still  by  another,  and  luxuries  of  all  kinds  were  produced  in  quick 


392  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

succession  and  as  quickly  despatched,  while  the  singers  pointedly 
alluded  to  the  praiseworthy  Kussian  custom  of  distributing  tobacco. 
When  the  desired  article  had  been  produced,  a  woman  then  repre- 
sented with  great  skill  all  the  various  stages  of  stupefaction  resulting 
from  smoking  and  snuffing.  The  women  dressed  in  men's  parkas." 
A  man's  entertainment  witnessed  by  Zagoskin  took  place  in 
the  same  village.  The  preparatory  arrangements  were  similar  ; 
one  of  the  women,  a  sorceress,  lead  the  chorus.  Her  first  song 
on  that  occasion  praised  a  propensity  of  the  Russian  for  making 
presents  of  tobacco,  rings,  and  other  trifles  to  women,  who,  in 
their  turn,  were  always  ready  to  oblige  them.  This,  however,  was 
only  introductory,  the  real  entertainment  beginning  with  a  chorus 
of  men  concealed  in  the  fire-hole.  The  gist  of  their  chant  was 
that  trapping,  hunting,  and  trade  were  bad,  that  nothing  could  be 
made,  and  that  they  could  only  sing  and  dance  to  please  their  wives. 
To  this  the  women  answered  that  they  had  long  been  aware  of  the 
laziness  of  their  husbands,  who  could  do  nothing  but  bathe  and 
smoke,  and  that  they  did  not  expect  to  see  any  food  produced,  such 
as  the  women  had  placed  before  them,  consequently  it  would  be 
better  to  go  to  bed  at  once.  The  men  answered  that  they  would 
go  and  hunt  for  something,  and  shortly  one  of  them  appeared 
through  the  opening.  This  mimic,  who  was  attired  in  female  ap- 
parel, with  bead-pendants  in  his  nose,  deep  fringes  of  wolverine 
tails,  bracelets,  and  rings,  imitated  in  a  most  admirable  and  humor- 
ous manner  the  motions  and  gestures  of  the  women  in  presenting 
their  luxuries,  and  then  gave  imitations  of  the  various  female  pur- 
suits and  labor,  the  guests  chuckling  with  satisfaction.  Suddenly 
the  parka  was  thrown  off,  and  the  man  began  to  represent  how  he 
hunted  the  mahklok,  seated  in  his  kayak,  which  performance  ended 
with  the  production  of  a  whole  boiled  mahklok,  of  which  Zagoskin 
received  the  throat  as  his  portion.  Others  represented  a  reindeer- 
hunt,  the  spearing  of  birds,  the  rendering  of  beluga-blubber,  the 
preparation  of  seal-intestines  for  water-proof  garments,  the  splitting 
of  deer-tendons  into  thread,  and  so  forth.  One  young  orphan  who, 
possessing  nothing  wherewith  to  treat  the  guests,  brought  on  a 
kantag  filled  with  water,  which  was  drunk  by  the  women  amid 
much  merriment.  It  sometimes  happens  on  these  occasions  that 
lovers  of  fun  sprinkle  the  women  with  oil,  or  with  that  fluid  which 
they  use  in  place  of  soap,  squirted  from  small  bladders  concealed 
about  their  persons  ;  and  such  jokes  are  never  resented. 


INNUIT  LIFE   AND   LAND. 

Another  festival,  in  honor  of  the  spirits  of  the  sea  (ugiak),  is 
celebrated  by  the  coast  tribes  during  a  whole  month.  The  prep- 
arations for  this  gathering  begin  early  in  the  autumn.  Every 
hunter  preserves  during  an  entire  year  the  bladders  from  all  such 
animals  as  he  kills  with  arrows ;  the  mothers  also  save  with  the 
greatest  care  the  bladders  of  all  rats,  mice,  ground-squirrels,  or 
other  small  animals  killed  by  their  children.  At  the  beginning  of 
December  all  these  bladders  are  inflated,  painted  in  various  colors, 
and  suspended  in  the  kashga  ;  and  among  them  the  men  hang  up 
a  number  of  fantastically  carved  figures  of  birds  and  fish.  Some 
of  the  figures  of  birds  are  quite  ingeniously  contrived,  with  mov- 
able eyes,  heads,  and  legs,  and  are  able  to  flap  their  wings.  Before 
the  fireplace  there  is  a  huge  block  wrapped  up  in  dry  grass.  From 
morning  until  night  these  carved  figures  are  kept  in  motion  by 
means  of  strings,  and  during  the  whole  time  a  chanting  of  songs 
continues,  while  dry  grass  and  weeds  are  burned  to  smoke  the  sus- 
pended bladders.  This  fumigating  process  ends  the  day's  per- 
formances, which  are  begun  anew  in  the  morning.  In  the  evening 
of  that  culminating  day  of  this  festival  those  strings  of  bladders  are 
taken  down  and  carried  by  men  upon  painted  sticks  prepared  for 
the  occasion  ;  the  women,  with  torches  in  their  hands,  accompany 
them  to  the  sea-shore.  Arrived  there,  the  bladders  are  tied  to 
sticks  and  weighted  with  stones,  and  finally  thrown  into  the  water, 
where  they  are  watched  with  the  greatest  interest  to  see  how  long 
they  float  upon  the  surface.  From  the  time  of  sinking  and  the 
number  of  rings  upon  the  water  where  a  bladder  has  disappeared 
the  shamans  prophesy  success  or  misfortune  in  hunting  during  the 
coming  year. 

A  final  memorial  feast  in  honor  of  a  distinguished  ancestor  is 
conducted  as  follows : 

Eight  old  men  clad  in  parkas  enter  the  kashga,  or  council-house, 
each  carrying  a  stone  lamp,  which  they  deposit  around  the  fire- 
hole.  They  next  produce  three  small  mats  and  spread  them  upon 
the  floor  in  three  corners  of  the  building,  and  from  the  spectators 
three  men  are  selected  who  are  willing  to  go  to  the  grave.  The 
three  nearest  relatives  of  the  deceased  then  seat  themselves  on  the 
mats  and  divest  themselves  of  all  their  clothing,  wash  their  bodies, 
and  don  new  clothes,  girding  themselves  with  belts  manufactured 
several  generations  back  and  preserved  as  heirlooms  in  the  family. 
To  each  of  these  men  a  staff  is  given,  and  they  advance  together  to 


394  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

the  centre  of  the  kashga,  when  the  oldest  among  the  invited  guests 
sends  them  forth  to  call  the  dead.  These  messengers  leave  the 
building,  followed  by  the  givers  of  this  feast.  After  an  absence  of 
ten  minutes  the  former  return,  and  through  the  underground  pas- 
sage the  whole  population  of  the  village  crowds  in,  from  the  old 
and  feeble  down  to  children  at  the  breast,  and  with  them  come  the 
masters  of  ceremonies,  wearing  long  seal-skin  gloves,  and  strings 
of  sea-parrot  bills  hanging  about  the  breast  and  arms,  with  elab- 
orate belts  nearly  a  foot  in  width,  consisting  of  white  bellies  of 
unborn  fawns  trimmed  with  wolverine  tails.  All  such  ornaments 
are  carefully  preserved  and  handed  down  from  generation  to  gene- 
ration, some  of  them  being  made  of  white  sable — an  exceedingly 
rare  skin — for  which  high  prices  are  paid,  as  much  as  twenty  or 
thirty  beavers  or  otters  for  one  small  skin.  The  women  hold  in 
their  hands  one  or  two  eagle-feathers,  and  tie  around  the  head  a 
narrow  strip  of  white  sable.  Each  family,  grouping  itself  behind 
its  own  stone  lamp,  chants  in  turn  in  mournful  measure  a  song  com- 
posed for  the  occasion.  These  songs  are  almost  indefinitely  pro- 
longed by  inserting  the  names  of  all  the  relatives  of  the  deceased, 
living  and  dead.  The  singers  stand  motionless  in  their  places,  and 
many  of  those  present  are  weeping.  When  a  "  song  of  the  dead  " 
is  concluded  the  people  seat  themselves,  and  their  usual  feasting 
and  gorging  ensues.  The  next  morning,  after  a  bath  (indulged  in 
by  all  the  males),  the  multitude  again  assembles  in  this  kashga. 
The  chanting  around  the  fire-hole  is  renewed  in  the  same  mournful 
tone,  until  one  old  man  seizes  a  bladder  drum  and  takes  the  lead, 
accompanied  by  a  few  singers,  and  followed  in  procession  by  all 
participants  in  the  feast.  They  walk  slowly  to  every  sepulchre  in 
succession,  halting  before  each  to  chant  a  mourning  song ;  all  vis- 
itors not  belonging  to  the  bereaved  families  in  the  meantime  crowd 
upon  the  sodded  roofs  of  the  houses  and  watch  these  proceedings. 
In  the  evening  all  that  remains  of  food  in  the  village  is  set  before 
the  people,  and  when  every  kantag  is  scraped  of  the  last  remnant 
of  its  contents  the  feast  is  ended  ;  then  those  visitors  at  once  depart 
for  their  homes. 

Occasionally  the  giver  of  such  a  feast,  desiring  to  do  special 
honor  to  the  object  of  it,  passes  three  days  sitting  naked  upon  a 
mat  in  a  corner  of  his  kashga,  without  food  or  drink,  chanting  a 
song  in  praise  of  a  dead  relative.  At  the  end  of  such  a  fast  any 
or  all  visitors  present  gifts  to  him ;  the  story  of  his  achievement 


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INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND.  395 

is  carried  abroad,  and  he  is  made  famous  for  life  among  his 
fellows. 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  many  individuals  give  away 
all  their  property  on  such  occasions.  If  it  happens  that  during 
such  a  memorial  feast  a  visitor  arrives  from  a  distant  village  who 
bears  the  same  name  with  the  subject  of  a  celebration,  he  is  at 
once  overwhelmed  with  gifts,  clothed  anew  from  head  to  foot  with 
the  most  expensive  garments,  and  returns  to  his  home  a  wealthy 
man. 

The  country  in  which  the  Innuit  lives  is  one  that  taxes  the  ut- 
most hardihood  of  man  when  it  is  traversed  by  land  or  by  sea.  It 
is  not  likely  that  it  will  ever  be  much  frequented  by  white  men — it 
will  remain  to  us  as  it  has  been  to  the  Kussians,  an  immense  area 
of  desolate  sameness,  almost  unknown  to  us,  or  to  its  savage  occu- 
pants, for  that  matter.  The  general  contour  of  the  great  Alaskan 
mainland  interior  is  that  of  a  vast  undulating  plain  with  high 
rounded  granitic  hills  and  ridges  scattered  in  all  lines  of  projection  ; 
on  the  flanks  of  which,  and  by  its  countless  lakes  and  water-courses, 
a  growth,  more  or  less  abundant,  of  spruce,  birch,  willows,  poplars, 
and  a  large  number  of  hardy  shrubs,  will  be  encountered.  Its 
summers  are  short,  warm,  and  pleasant ;  its  winters  are  long,  and 
bitterly  cold  and  inclement. 

The  tundra,  however,  which  fronts  the  whole  of  that  extensive 
coast-line  of  Bering  Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean,  is  indeed  cheerless 
and  repellant  at  any  season.  In  the  summer  it  is  a  great  flat  swale, 
full  of  bog-holes,  shiny  and  decaying  peat,  innumerable  sloughs, 
shallow  and  stagnant,  and  from  which  swarms  of  malignant  mos- 
quitoes rise  to  fairly  torture  and  destroy  a  traveller  unless  he  be 
clad  in  a  coat  of  mail  In  the  winter  and  early  spring  fierce  gales 
of  wind  at  zero-temperature  sweep  over  these  steppes  of  Alaska  in 
constant  succession,  making  travel  exceedingly  dangerous,  and  as 
painful  even  as  it  is  in  the  warmer  months.  During  this  period 
of  the  year  all  approach  to  the  coast  is  barred  in  Bering  Sea  by  a 
system  of  shoals  and  banks  which  extend  so  far  seaward  that  a 
vessel  drawing  only  ten  feet  of  water  will  be  hard  aground,  beyond 
the  sight  of  land,  sixty  miles  off  the  Yukon  mouth. 

At  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Bristol  a  small  but  deep  and  rapid 
river  empties  a  flood  of  pure,  clear  water  into  an  intricate  series  of 
sand  and  mud  channels  which  belong  there.  The  Kvichak  is  the 
name  of  this  stream,  and  it  rises  less  than  forty  miles  away  in  the 


396  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

largest  fresh-water  lake  known  to  Alaska — that  inland  sea  of  Hy- 
amna,  over  ninety  miles  in  its  greatest  length,  varying  in  width 
from  fifteen  to  thirty.  Those  gusts  and  gales  that  sweep  over  its  blue 
waters  raise  a  heavy  surf  which  beats  sonorously  upon  its  pebbly 
shores  and  under  its  cliffs,  while  the  loud  wailing  cry  of  a  great 
northern  loon  *  echoes  from  one  lonely  shore  to  the  other  when  dis- 
turbed by  the  unwonted  passage  of  a  native's  canoe.  Against  the 
eastern  horizon  there  springs  from  its  bosom  an  abrupt  and  mighty 
wall  of  Alpine  peaks,  which  stand  as  an  eternal  barrier  between 
its  pure  sweet  waters  and  the  salt  surges  of  the  Pacific. 

The  ruins  of  an  old  Eussian  trading-post  stand  in  the  midst  of 
a  small  native  village  at  the  outlet  of,  and  on  the  slope  of,  a  lovely 
grassy  upland  which  rises  from  the  lake.  Its  people  are  all  living 
in  log  houses  like  those  we  noticed  in  Cook's  Inlet ;  but  nevertheless 
they  are  true  Innuits.  The  two  other  small  hamlets  on  these  Ily- 
amna  shores  are  all  that  exist.  Their  inhabitants  live  in  the  great- 
est peace  and  solitary  comfort  that  savages  can  understand.  Two 
trails  over  the  divide  are  travelled  by  these  natives,  who  trade  with 
the  Cook's  Inlet  people,  and  who  range  over  the  mountain  sides  in 
pursuit  of  reindeer  and  of  bears.  A  most  noteworthy  family  of 
Russian  Creoles  lived  here  on  the  first  portage.  The  father  was  a 
man  of  gigantic  stature,  and  he  reared  four  Anak-like  sons,  who 
are,  as  he  was,  mighty  hunters,  and  of  great  physical  power.  This 
family  lives  all  to  itself  in  that  beautiful  wilderness  of  Ilyamna,  a 
little  way  back  from  the  lake  on  a  hillside,  where  they  command 
passes  over  to  Cook's  Inlet.  They  control  the  trade  of  this  entire 
region  and  rule  without  a  shadow  of  disputation. 

A  tragedy  occurred  in  one  of  these  small  villages  of  Ilyamna, 
which  has  been  fitly  memorized  by  the  Russian  Church.  In  1796 
a  priest  of  the  Greek  faith  came  over  from  Kadiak,  and,  enchanted 
by  the  scenery  and  pleased  by  a  warm,  kindly  welcome  received 
from  the  natives,  he  determined  to  tarry  here  with  them  and  save 
their  souls.  He  f  was  a  man  of  the  most  handsome  presence  and 
the  sweetest  address,  and  for  a  moment  prevailed.  Then,  as  the 


*  Colymbus  arcticus. 

f  The  Archimandrite  Jeromonakh  Juvenal.  The  second  of  the  priestly 
Russian  service  was  Arch.  Joassaf.  He  was  drowned  at  sea  in  1797.  He  was 
succeeded  by  Arch.  Afanassy,  who  remained  Bishop  of  Alaska  until  1825,  and 
he  has  been  followed  by  many  successors  since. 


INNUIT    LIFE   AND   LAND.  397 

heathenish  rites  and  festivals  were  postponed  at  his  bidding,  sur- 
ly shamans  fomented  seeds  of  hate  and  fear.  Finally  an  hour 
arrived  when,  at  a  preconcerted  signal,  the  slumbering  wrath  of 
the  savages  was  aroused,  and  they  fell  upon  and  slew  this  unsus- 
pecting missionary  and  destroyed  every  vestige  of  his  existence 
among  them.  The  cause  of  Father  Juvenal's  death  was  his  strong 
opposition  to  polygamy.  It  is  said  that  when  he  was  attacked  by 
savages  he  neither  fled  nor  did  he  defend  himself,  either  of  which 
he  might  have  successfully  done  ;  but  he  delivered  himself  unre- 
sistingly into  the  hands  of  his  murderers,  asking  only  for  the  safety 
of  his  subordinates,  which  was  granted.  The  natives  say,  in  their 
recitation  of  the  event,  that  after  the  monk  had  been  struck  down 
and  left  by  the  mob  as  dead,  he  "  rose  up  once  more,  walked  towards 
them,  and  spoke."  They  fell  upon  him  again,  and  again,  and  again, 
for  he  repeated  this  miracle  several  times,  until  at  last,  in  bewil- 
dered fury,  they  literally  cut  him  into  pieces. 

Eeindeer  cross  and  recross  the  Kvichak  Kiver  in  large  herds 
during  the  month  of  September,  as  they  range  over  to  and  from 
the  Peninsula  of  Alaska,  feeding,  and  also  to  escape  from  mosqui- 
toes. At  the  mouth  of  this  stream  is  one  of  the  broadest  deer-roads 
in  the  country.  The  natives  run  along  the  banks  of  the  river 
when  reindeer  are  swimming  across,  easily  and  rapidly  spearing 
those  unfortunate  animals  as  they  rise  from  the  water,  securing 
in  this  way  any  number  that  fancy  or  want  may  dictate.  At  one 
time  a  trader  counted  seven  hundred  deer-carcasses  as  they  lay 
here  on  the  sands  of  the  river's  margin,  untouched  save  by  a  re- 
moval of  the  hides  ;  not  a  pound  of  that  meat  out  of  the  thousands 
putrefying  had  been  saved  by  these  lazy  Innuits  ;  who,  improvident 
wretches  as  they  are,  would  be  living,  less  than  five  months  later,  in 
a  state  of  starvation  !  But  all  this  misery  of  famine  in  March  will 
have  been  forgotten  again  next  September,  when  the  same  surplus 
of  food  is  within  their  reach,  for  they  will  not  store  up  against  the 
morrow — the  labor  is  too  great — the  shiftless  sentiment  of  a  savage 
forbids  that  exertion. 

There  is  a  curious  distinction  drawn  by  nature  between  the 
Siberian  and  Alaskan  reindeer.  Everybody  is  familiar  with  the 
fact  that  on  the  Asiatic  side  these  animals  are  domesticated  and 
serve  as  a  mainstay  and  support  of  large  tribes,  both  savage  and 
civilized.  But  the  spirit  of  the  Alaskan  deer  is  such  that  it  will  not 
live  under  the  control  of  man,  or  even  within  his  presence.  If  con- 


398  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

fined,  it  refuses  food,  and  then  perishes  of  self-imposed  starvation. 
The  most  patient  and  extended  trials  have  been  made  at  Nooshagak 
by  imported  Karnschadales,  who  were  raised  to  the  life  of  deer- 
driving  over  there  ;  yet,  in  no  instance  whatsoever  were  these 
experts  able  to  overcome  the  difficulty  and  accustom  those  timid 
animals  to  the  sight,  sound,  and  smell  of  man.  The  Alaskan  spe- 
cies is  much  larger  than  its  Asiatic  cousin,  but  otherwise  resembles 
it  closely,  being,  if  anything,  more  uniformly  gray  in  tint  and  less 
spotted  with  white  over  the  back  and  head. 

Reindeer  have  a  most  extended  range  in  Alaska,  where  an  im- 
mense area  of  tundra  and  upland  moors  yield  an  abundance  of 
those  mosses  and  lichens  which  they  most  affect.  Innumerable 
sloughs  and  lakes  afford  these  deer  a  harbor  of  refuge  from  cruel  tor- 
ments of  mosquitoes,  when  the  wind  does  not  blow  briskly  in  sum- 
mer ;  the  wooded  interior  gives  them  shelter  from  the  driving  fury 
of  wintry  snow-storms.  Big  brown  bears  follow  in  the  wake  of 
travelling  herds,  and  feed  fat  upon  all  sickly  or  weaker  members 
and  imprudent  fawns  of  the  drove  ;  so  do  wolves  and  wolverines  ; 
and  the  lop-eared  lynx  is  not  missing. 

Nooshagak  is  a  trading  centre  for  that  entire  Bristol  Bay  dis- 
trict, which  comprises  the  coast  of  Bering  Sea  from  Cape  Ne wen- 
ham,  in  the  north,  to  the  peninsular  extremity  at  Oonimak,  in  the 
south — an  immense  expanse  in  which  some  four  thousand  Innuits 
abide,  and  live  largely  upon  fish  and  deer-meat.  The  Oogashik, 
Igageek,  Nakneek,  Kvichak,  Nooshagak,  Igoosheek,  and  Togiak 
Eivers  all  empty  into  this  great  shallow  gulf.  Up  their  swollen 
channels,  after  an  opening  of  the  ice  during  the  last  half  of  May, 
salmon  run  from  the  sea  in  irregular  but  constant  travel  until  the 
end  of  August.  Inferior  salmon  run  even  as  late  as  November, 
while  the  various  kinds  of  salmon-trout  and  white-fish  exist  under 
the  ice  of  deep  streams  and  lakes  all  winter.  By  the  middle  of 
September  hard  frosts  in  the  mountains  congeal  all  sources  of  in- 
numerable rivulets  which  have  helped  to  swell  the  volume  and 
raise  the  level  of  a  river's  summer  flood,  and  then  these  streams 
which  we  have  just  named  begin  to  fall  rapidly  in  their  channels. 
If  we  chance  to  travel  anywhere  along  their  banks  at  this  time,  we 
will  find  them  covered  with  windrows  and  heaps  of  dead  salmon 
two  and  three  feet  in  height.  The  gravelly  beaches  of  the  lakes, 
the  bars  and  shoals  of  every  stream,  are  then  lined  with  decaying 
and  putrid  bodies  of  these  fish,  while  every  overhanging  bough 


INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND.  399 

and  projecting  rock  is  festooned  with  their  rotting  forms — ah ! 
the  stench  arising  absolutely  forbids  the  pangs  of  hunger,  even 
though  we  have  no  provision.  These  are  the  salmon  that  have  died 
from  exhaustion  and  from  bruises  received  in  struggling  with  swift 
and  impetuous  currents,  and  the  rocks  and  snags  that  beset  their 
paths  of  annual  reproduction. 

North  of  the  Togiak  River  are  several  small,  rocky  islets  which, 
having  a  nucleus  of  solid  granite,  are  the  cause  of  a  large  series 
of  sand  and  mud  reefs.  Upon  those  shoals  the  huge  walrus  of 
Bering  Sea  is  wont  to  crawl  and  lazily  sun  himself  in  herds  of 
thousands.  He  is  practically  secure  here  from  attack,  since  the 
varying  shifts  of  the  tide  and  its  furious  rush  in  ebb  and  flood 
make  a  trip  to  the  islets  one  of  positive  danger,  even  to  a  most 
hardy  and  well-acquainted  hunter.  Stragglers,  however,  are  fre- 
quently surprised  on  the  mainland  shore  opposite,  and  the  south- 
ern coast  of  Hagenmeister  Island  toward  Cape  Newenham  to  the 
westward. 

The  muskrat  catch  of  Alaska  is  secured  almost  wholly  in  the 
Nooshagak  region— an  immense  number  of  these  water-rodents  are 
annually  taken  by  Innuits  here.  Traders,  however,  do  not  prize  them 
very  highly,  but  to  secure  the  natives'  custom  they  are  obliged  to  ap- 
pear satisfied  with  all  that  these  people  bring  in  to  the  post.  These 
skins  are,  however,  not  sold  in  this  country ;  they  are  all  shipped  to 
France  and  Germany,  where  they  meet  with  a  ready  sale,  since  the 
poor  people  there  are  not  above  wearing  them.  Also,  most  of  the 
good  Alaskan  beaver  peltries  are  from  this  district,  where  they  have 
the  best  fur  and  are  consequently  prized  above  all  other  catches 
outside  of  that  region.  Land-otter  is  also  in  large  quantity  and 
fine  quality,  but  the  mink  and  martens  and  foxes  are  inferior. 
During  summer  seasons,  on  many  lakes,  flocks  of  big,  white, 
trumpeting  swans  will  be  found  frequenting  nearly  every  one  of 
those  bodies  of  water.  The  natives  hunt  them  at  night,  and  capt- 
ure unsuspecting  birds  as  they  sleep  upon  the  water,  by  paddling 
noiselessly  upon  them.  The  traders  encourage  this  industry  for 
the  sake  of  the  swan's  down  which  it  produces.  The  most  favored 
spot  by  swans  is  Lake  Walker,  which  lies  on  the  Nakneek  port- 
age over  to  Cook's  Inlet.  Perhaps  its  rare,  unique  beauty  charms 
these  giant  natatores  as  it  does  ourselves,  for,  without  question,  it 
is  incomparably  the  most  lovely  sheet  of  water,  set  in  a  frame  of 
glorious  mountains,  which  the  fancy  of  an  artist  could  possibly 


400  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

devise.  It  is  an  exceedingly  fascinating  spot,  and  language  is  utter* 
ly  inadequate  to  portray  its  vistas,  which  alternate  from  absolute 
grandeur  to  that  of  quiet  loveliness,  as  you  sail  around  its  pebbly 
shores  and  yellow  sands. 

The  immediate  banks  of  the  Nakneek  Biver,  through  which 
Lake  Walker  empties  its  surplus  water  into  Bristol  Bay,  are  low  and 
flat,  and  covered  with  a  luxuriant  growth  of  bushes,  grasses,  and 
amphibious  plants,  semi-tropical  in  their  verdant  vigor  of  life. 
The  timber  on  hill-slopes  that  rise  from  the  plain  is  principally 
clumps  of  birch  and  poplar,  quickly  passing  to  solid  masses  of 
spruce  as  a  higher  ascent  is  made  to  the  rolling  uplands  and 
mountain  sides.  An  old,  deserted  settlement — ruins  of  Paugwik, 
marked  by  the  decayed  outlines  of  its  cemetery,  still  is  visible  at 
the  debouchure  of  the  Nakneek.  With  a  strange  disrespect  for  the 
departed,  those  natives  who  live  at  an  adjoining  village  come  over 
here  to  excavate  salmon-holes  in  that  ancient  graveyard,  wherein  they 
place  their  fish-heads,  so  that  a  process  of  moist  rotting  shall  take 
place  prior  to  eating  them  !  The  Innuits  of  Kenigayat  have  no  fear 
of  the  "  witching  hour  of  night "  in  this  burial  site  of  their  ancestors. 

The  seal  and  walrus  hunters  of  the  Nooshagak  district  are  those 
hardy  Innuits  who  live  at  Kulluk  and  Ooallikh  Bays,  in  plain  sight 
of  these  walrus  islets  and  shoals  which  we  were  taking  notice  of  a 
short  time  ago.  The  large  mahklok  and  a  smaller,  but  quaintly 
marked  "saddle-backed"  seal  are  taken  by  these  people  in  large 
numbers  every  year.  The  oil  is  their  great  stock-in-trade,  for  those 
fur-bearing  animals  that  belong  to  the  land  here  are  away  below  par 
when  brought  to  a  trader.  The  coast  between  their  villages  and 
the  mouth  of  the  Togiak  Biver  is  one  of  a  most  remarkable  series 
of  bluffy  headlands,  seven  of  them,  being  all  of  sandstone  which 
has  weathered  into  queer,  fantastic  pinnacles  and  towers,  and  is 
washed  at  the  sea-level  into  hundreds  of  huge  caverns  wherein  the 
surf  beats  with  a  noise  like  the  distant  roar  of  artillery.  Scream- 
ing flocks  of  water-fowl  are  breeding  on  their  mural  faces,  and 
troops  of  foxes  lurk  in  the  interstices,  and  roam  incessantly  for  eggs 
and  unwary  birds. 

The  Togiak  Biver  never  was  ascended  by  a  white  man  until  the 
summer  of  1880.*  It  is  a  very  remarkable  region  with  respect  to 


*  Visited  then  by  Ivan  Petroff ,  who  made  an  extended  trip  for  the  United 
States  Census. 


§  r 


INNUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND.  401 

its  people.  Though  the  course  of  the  river  is  only  one  hundred 
miles  in  length,  yet  we  find  upon  it  seven  villages  (one  of  them  very 
large),  having  an  aggregate  population  of  1,826  souls.  No  other  one 
section  of  Alaska  has  so  dense  a  population  with  reference  to  its 
inhabited  area.  The  river  is,  however,  a  broad  one,  being  a  mile 
and  a  half  in  width,  shoal  and  shallow,  with  deep  pools  and  eddies 
here  and  there.  Its  banks  are  low,  and  the  valley  through  which 
it  runs  is  low  and  flat,  with  extensive  bottom-lands  that  widen 
out  at  places  to  a  distance  of  fifteen  miles  between  the  ridges 
and  hills  which  direct  its  short  course.  Upon  these  flats  grow 
most  luxuriant  and  lofty  grasses,  high  as  the  heads  of  natives — 
literally  concealing,  as  it  were,  the '  dense  human  occupation  of  its 
extent. 

The  Togiaks  are  the  Quakers  of  Alaska  ;  they  are  the  simplest 
and  the  most  unpretending  of  all  her  people  ;  they  seem  to  live  en- 
tirely to  themselves,  wholly  indifferent  as  to  what  other  folks  have 
and  they  have  not.  They  seldom  ever  view  a  white  man,  and  then  it 
is  only  when  they  go  down  to  the  river's  mouth  and  visit  a  trader 
in  his  sloop  or  schooner.  He  never  goes  up  to  see  them,  for  the  best 
of  reasons  to  him — they  never  have  anything  fit  for  barter  save  a 
few  inferior  mink  and  ground-squirrel  skins  to  trade.  They  have 
no  chiefs ;  each  family  is  a  law  unto  itself,  and  it  comes  and  goes 
with  a  sort  of  free  and  easy  abandon  that  must  resemble  the  life 
and  habit  of  primeval  time.  What  little  these  people  want  and  can- 
not get  from  each  other,  they  do  not  go  farther  in  search  of,  but 
do  without,  unless  it  be  small  supplies  of  tobacco  which  they  pro- 
cure through  other  Innuits,  second  or  third  hand. 

Entire  families  of  them,  during  the  summer,  leave  their  winter 
huts  and  go  out  into  the  valley  at  such  points  as  their  fancy  may 
indicate,  where  they  pass  two  and  three  months  with  absolutely  no 
shelter  whatever  erected  during  that  entire  lapse  of  time.  When  it 
rains  hard  they  simply  turn  their  skin  boats  bottom  side  up,  stick 
their  heads  under,  and  consider  themselves  fully  settled  for  protec- 
tion from  tempestuous  wind  and  sleet-storms,  or  any  other  climatic 
unpleasantness.  How  insensible  to  extremes  of  weather  do  these 
bodies  of  the  Innuits  become — their  whole  external  form  is  as  in- 
sensible to  heat  or  cold  as  their  stolid  features  are !  Were  they 
living  under  Italian  skies,  they  could  not  affect  a  greater  disregard 
for  the  varying  moods  of  that  mild  climate  than  they  do  for  the 
chilly,  boisterous  weather  of  Alaska.  The  Togiakers  never  go  far 


402  OUK   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

from  the  river  upon  which  they  build  their  rude  winter  villages,  and 
never  venture  out  from  its  mouth  ;  hence  they  are  not  so  happy  in 
making  the  skin  canoe  or  kayak,  as  their  hardier  brethren  are  : 
these  boats  on  the  Togiak  are  clumsy,  broad  of  beam  in  proportion 
to  length,  and  the  hatch,  or  hole,  so  large  that  two  persons  can  sit 
in  it  back  to  back.  When  a  family  concludes  to  go  out  for  the 
summer  camp,  the  man  gets  into  his  "kayak,"  takes  the  children 
who  are  under  four  or  five  years  in  with  him,  then  pulls  and  pad- 
dles his  \VSLJ  up  against  the  current,  or  floats  down,  as  the  case  may 
be  ;  the  women — wife,  mother,  and  daughters — are  turned  ashore 
and  obliged  to  find  their  way  up  or  down  through  long  grass  and 
over  quaking  bogs — to  toil  in  this  manner  from  camp  to  camp, 
and  as  they  plod  along  they  shout  and  sing  at  the  top  of  their 
voices  to  apprise  any  bear  or  bears,  which  may  be  in  their  path,  of 
such  coming,  and  thus  stampede  them  ;  otherwise  they  would  be 
in  continual  danger  of  silently  stepping  upon  bruin  as  he  lurked  or 
slept  in  dense  grassy  jungles.  When  a  bear  first  takes  notice  of 
the  approach  of  a  human  being  it  invariably  slinks  away,  rarely 
ever  displaying,  by  the  faintest  sound,  its  departure  ;  but  that  same 
animal,  if  surprised  suddenly  at  close  quarters,  will  turn  and  fight 
desperately,  even  unto  death. 

The  bold,  far-projected  headland  of  Cape  Newenham  forms  the 
southern  pier  of  that  remarkable  funnel-like  sea-opening  to  the 
Kuskokvim  River — a  river  upon  which  the  human  ichthyophagi  of 
the  north  do  most  congregate  :  three  thousand  savages  are  living 
here  in  a  string  of  scattered  hamlets  that  closely  adjoin  each  other, 
and  are  nearly  all  located  on  the  right-hand  bank  of  the  river  as  we 
ascend  it.  They  are  more  like  muskrat  villages  than  human  habi- 
tations— water,  water  all  around  and  everywhere  :  situated  on  little 
patches,  or  narrow  dikes,  at  the  rim  of  the  high  tides,  on  the  edge 
of  the  river  proper,  which  is  here,  and  for  a  long  distance  up,  bor- 
dered by  a  strikingly  desolate  and  forlorn  country.  A  glance  at 
our  map  will  show  to  the  reader  that  great  funnel-fashioned  mouth 
of  the  Kuskokvim,  through  which  its  strong  and  turbid,  clay-white 
current  is  discharged  into  Bering  Sea.  The  tides,  in  this  enormous 
estuary,  run  with  a  rise  and  fall  that  simply  beggars  description — 
reaching  an  amazing  vertical  flow  and  ebb  of  fifty  feet  at  the  en- 
trance !  Such  extraordinary  change  in  tide-level  is  carried  up,  but 
much  modified  as  it  progresses,  until  lost  at  Mumtrekhlagamute  ; 
the  entire  physical  aspect  of  that  region,  in  which  this  sweeping 


8  = 

s  s 

1  1 

\  I 

2  "2 

i  i 

<  o 


IXXUIT   LIFE   AND   LAND.  403 

daily  change  in  a  level  of  the  water  prevails,  is  most  repellant  and 
discouraging. 

From  the  high-tide  bank-rims  of  the  Kuskokvim,  as  we  go  up, 
across  to  the  hills  and  to  their  rear  in  the  east,  extends  a  dreary 
expanse  of  swale  and  watered  moors  forty  to  sixty  miles  in  width, 
flat  and  low  as  the  surface  of  the  sea  itself.  At  high  tide  it  appears 
to  be  nearly  all  submerged.  It  shimmers  then  like  an  inland  ocean 
studded  with  myriads  of  small  mossy  islets.  Again,  when  the  tide 
in  turn  runs  out,  great  far-expanded  flats  of  mud  and  ooze  supplant 
the  waters  everywhere,  giving  in  this  abrupt  manner  a  striking 
shift  of  scenic  effect.  The  eastern  river  bank  is  a  queer,  natural 
dike,  formed  by  a  rank  and  vigorous  growth  of  coarse  sedges,  bul- 
rushes, and  little  sapling  fringes  of  alders,  willows,  with  birch  and 
poplars  interspersed.  Upon  this  natural  dike  these  native  villages 
range  in  close  continuity,  each  occupying  all  the  dry  land  in  its  own 
immediate  limits,  and  occupying  it  so  thoroughly  that  a  traveller 
cannot,  without  great  difficulty,  find  bare  land  enough  outside  of 
their  sites  upon  which  to  pitch  his  tent.  Mud,  mud  everywhere — 
a  whitish-clay  silt,  through  which,  at  low  tide,  it  is  almost  a  phys- 
ical impossibility  to  walk  from  a  stranded  bidarka  up  to  the  vil- 
lages. Indeed,  if  you  are  unfortunate  enough  to  reach  a  settlement 
here  when  coming  down  or  going  up  the  river  as  the  tide  is  out, 
you  are  a  wise  man  if  you  simply  fold  your  arms,  sit  quietly  in  your 
cramped  position  until  the  rising,  roaring  flood  returns  and  carries 
you  forward  and  over  to  your  destination. 

On  the  Lower  Kuskokvim  the  river  width  of  itself  is  so  great 
that  the  people  living  on  its  eastern  banks  never  can  see  an  oppo- 
site shore  to  the  westward,  for  it  is  even  more  submerged  there  and 
swampy,  if  anything,  than  where  they  reside ;  hence  we  find  them 
located  here  on  the  east  bank,  to  a  practical  exclusion  of  all  settle- 
ment over  on  those  occidental  swales  and  bogs.  The  current  of 
this  singular  stream  flows  quite  rapidly.  It  discharges  a  great 
volume  of  water,  which  is  colored  a  peculiar  whitish  tone  by  the 
contribution  of  a  roiled  tributary  that  heads  in  the  Nooshagak 
divide.  At  its  source  and  down  to  this  muddy  junction  it  is  clear. 
It  is  a  rapid  stream  in  the  narrows,  and  dull  and  sluggish  in  flow 
through  wide  openings. 

The  density  of  aboriginal  population  so  remarkably  manifested 
as  we  observe  it  on  the  Lower  Kuskokvim  does  not,  however,  give 
all  the  testimony,  inasmuch  as  during  every  summer  two  thousand 


404  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

or  more  natives  from  the  Yukon  delta  come  over  here  to  fish  with 
the  Kuskokvims,  making  a  sum-total  of  six  or  seven  thousand  fish- 
eaters,  who  catch,  consume,  and  waste  an  astonishing  quantity  of 
salmon,  which  would,  if  properly  handled,  be  sufficient  to  hand- 
somely feed  the  entire  number  of  native  inhabitants  of  Alaska, 
four  times  over,  every  year  ! 

Snow  lies  deeply  upon  all  this  region,  driven  and  packed  in  vast 
drifts  and  fields  by  the  wrath  of  furious  wintry  gales,  and  the  hunt- 
ing of  land  animals  is  thus  made  impossible.  Then  a  native  of  the 
Kuskokvim  Valley  turns  his  attention  to  trapping  white-fish*  just 
as  soon  as  the  ice  becomes  firmly  established,  usually  early  in  No- 
vember. The  traps  are  made  of  willow  and  alder  wicker-work,  and 
nearly  all  in  the  same  pattern  as  those  employed  for  salmon,  but  of 
somewhat  smaller  dimensions,  so  as  to  be  easier  to  handle,  since 
they  are  not  required  to  catch  the  huge  "chowichie."  Every  morn- 
ing at  dawn  on  the  river  the  men  of  its  many  villages  can  be  seen 
making  their  way  out  to  these  fish-traps,  when  it  is  not  bitterly 
inclement,  and  even  then,  sometimes.  They  carry  curiously  shaped 
ice-picks,  made  or  fashioned  from  walrus-teeth  or  deer-antlers,  be- 
cause every  night's  freezing  covers  the  trap  anew  with  a  solid  cap 
of  ice,  which  must  be  broken  up  and  removed  ere  a  savage  can  get 
at  it,  haul  it  out,  and  empty  its  "pot."  Think  of  the  physical  hard- 
ihood required  of  a  man  who  goes  out  from  his  hut  to  visit  such 
a  trap  when  the  wind,  away  below  zero,  is  blowing  over  an  icy 
plain  of  the  broad  river  at  the  rate  of  sixty  miles  an  hour,  whirling 
snowy  spiculse,  like  hot  shot,  into  the  faintest  exposure  which  he 
dares  to  make  of  his  face  or  eyes !  He  does  not  often  go  when  a 
"poorga"  prevails  in  this  boisterous  manner.  Sometimes  he  feels 
as  though  he  must,  since  a  storm  may  have  raged  in  wild,  bitter 
fury  for  a  week  without  sign  of  abatement.  His  children  or  his 
wife  may  be  sick  and  half-starved ;  then,  only  then,  does  he  vent- 
ure out  to  dare  and  endure  the  greatest  hardship  of  savage  life  in 
Alaska. 

It  frequently  happens  after  an  unusually  cold  night  that  a  trap, 
including  its  contents,  is  frozen  solid.  This  is  another  dreaded 
accident,  for  it  involves  great  labor,  since  the  trap  itself  must  be 
picked  to  pieces  and  built  anew.  In  spite  of  all  these  difficulties, 
the  natives  get  enough  fresh  fish  during  each  winter  by  such  method 


INNUIT   LIFE  AND   LAND.  405 

to  eke  out  their  scanty  stpre  of  dried  salmon  and  save  themselves 
from  starvation.  On  the  lower  river  course,  within  the  influence 
of  that  tremendous  tidal  action  which  has  been  described,  a  solid 
covering  of  ice  never  envelops  the  surface  of  the  Kuskokvim.  Here 
the  natives  hunt  seals,  the  mahklok,  and  also  the  white  whale  or 
beluga,  which  furnishes  them  a  full  supply  of  oil  *  and  blubber.  A 
school  of  belugas  puff  and  snort,  like  a  fleet  of  tug-boats,  as  they 
push  between  and  under  tide-broken  masses  of  ice  in  hot  pursuit 
of  fish  that  abound  all  over  the  broad  estuary. 

There  is  one  particularly  distressing  and  hideous  feature  that 
belongs  to  this  entire  area  of  the  Alaskan  coast  tundra  and  marshy 
moors  of  the  interior  and  its  forests,  its  river-margins,  and,  in  fact, 
to  every  place  except  those  spots  where  the  wind  blows  hard.  It  is 
the  curse  of  mosquitoes — the  incessant  stinging  of  swarms  of  these 
blood-thirsty  insects,  which  come  out  from  their  watery  pupae  by 
May  1st  (with  the  earliest  growing  of  spring  vegetation),  and  remain 
in  perfect  clouds  until  withered  and  destroyed  by  severe  frosts  in 
September  and  October.  The  Indians  themselves  do  not  dare  to 
go  into  the  woods  at  Kolmakovsky  during  the  summer,  and  the  very 
dogs  themselves  frequently  die  from  effects  of  mere  mosquito-biting 
about  their  eyes  and  paws  only,  for  that  thick  woolly  hair  of  these 
canines  effectually  shields  all  other  portions  of  their  bodies.  Close- 
haired  beasts,  like  cattle  or  horses,  would  perish  here  in  a  single 
fortnight  at  the  longest,  if  not  protected  by  man. 

Universal  agreement  in  Alaska  credits  the  Kuskokvim  mosquito 


*  The  oil  obtained  from  the  beluga  and  the  large  seal  (mahklok)  is  a  very 
important  article  of  trade  between  the  lowland  people  and  those  of  the  moun- 
tains, the  latter  depending  upon  it  entirely  for  lighting  their  semi-subterra- 
nean dwellings  during  the  winter,  and  to  supplement  their  scanty  stores  of 
food.  It  is  manufactured  by  a  very  simple  process.  Huge  drift-logs  are  fash- 
ioned into  troughs  much  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Thlinket  tribes  make 
their  wooden  canoes.  Into  these  troughs  filled  with  water  the  blubber  is 
thrown  in  lumps  of  from  two  to  five  pounds  in  weight.  Then  a  large  number 
of  smooth  cobble-stones  are  thrown  into  a  fire  until  they  are  thoroughly  heated, 
when  they  are  picked  up  with  sticks  fashioned  for  the  purpose  and  deposited 
in  the  water,  which  boils  up  at  once.  After  a  few  minutes  these  stones  must 
be  removed  and  replaced  by  fresh  ones,  this  laborious  process  being  continued 
until  all  oil  has  been  boiled  out  of  the  blubber  and  floats  on  the  surface, 
when  it  is  removed  with  flat  pieces  of  bone  or  roughly  fashioned  ladles,  and 
decanted  into  bladders  or  whole  seal-skins,  then  cached  on  pole-frames  until 
sold  or  used  by  the  makers. 


406  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

as  being  me  worst.  They  do  not  app9ar  elsewhere  in  the  same 
number  or  ferocity,  but  they  are  quite  unendurable  at  the  best 
and  most-favored  stations.  Breeding  here,  as  they  do,  in  these 
vast  extents  of  tundra  sloughs  and  woodland  swamps,  they  are  able 
to  rally  around  and  embarrass  an  explorer  beyond  all  reasonable 
description.  Language  is  simply  inadequate  to  portray  that  misery 
and  annoyance  which  the  Alaskan  mosquito-swarms  inflict  upon 
us  in  the  summer,  whenever  we  venture  out  from  the  shelter  of 
trading-posts,  where  mosquito-bars  envelop  our  couches  and  cross 
the  doors  and  windows  to  our  living-room.  Naturally,  it  will  be 
asked,  What  do  the  natives  do  ?  They,  too,  are  annoyed  and  suffer  ; 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  their  bodies  are  daily  anointed  with 
rancid  oil,  and  certain  ammoniacal  vapors  constantly  arise  from  their 
garments  which  even  the  mosquito,  venomous  and  cruel  as  it  is, 
can  scarcely  withstand  the  repellant  power  of.  When  the  natives 
travel  in  this  season,  they  gladly  avail  themselves,  however,  of  any 
small  piece  of  mosquito-netting  that  they  can  secure,  no  matter  how 
small.  Usually  they  have  to  wrap  cloths  and  skins  about  their 
heads,  and  they  always  wear  mittens  in  midsummer.  The  traveller 
who  exposes  his  bare  face  at  this  time  of  the  year  on  the  Kuskokvim 
tundra  or  woodlands  will  speedily  lose  his  natural  appearance  ;  his 
eyelids  swell  up  and  close  ;  his  neck  expands  in  fiery  pimples,  so 
that  no  collar  that  he  ever  wore  before  can  now  be  fastened  around 
it,  while  his  hands  simply  become  as  two  carbuncled  balls.  Bear 
and  deer  are  driven  into  the  water  by  these  mosquitoes.  They  are 
a  scourge  and  the  greatest  curse  of  Alaska. 

Two  hundred  miles  up  from  the  Kuskokvim  mouth  is  a  focal 
centre  of  the  trade  in  this  district.  It  is  Kolmakovsky,  established 
by  the  Russians  in  1839.  It  consists  of  seven  large,  roughly  built 
frame  dwellings  and  log  warehouses,  and  a  chapel,  which  stand  on 
a  flat,  timbered  mesa  well  above  the  river,  on  its  right  or  southern 
shore.  Here  the  current  of  the  stream  has  narrowed,  and  flows 
between  high  banks  over  a  gravelly  bed.  These  terraces,  which 
rise  from  the  water,  are  flat-topped,  and  covered  with  a  tall  growth 
of  spruce.  Mossy  tundras  and  grassy  meadows  roll  in  between  ^ 
forest  patches.  The  timber  is  much  larger  here  than  it  is  a^jr- 
where  else  in  the  great  Alaskan  interior,  and  that  scenery  along 
this  river  is  far  wilder  and  more  agreeable  than  any  which  is  so 
monotonous  and  characteristic  of  the  Upper  Yukon.  The  deso- 
late flatness  and  muddy  wastes  of  the  Lower  Kuskokvim  are  now 


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§ii 


INNUIT  LIFE   AND    LAND.  407 

replaced  by  this  pleasing  change,  which  we  have  just  mentioned,  a 
short  distance  below  Kolmakovsky. 

Back  of  that  post,  and  clearly  defined  against  the  horizon,  are 
the  snowy-capped  summits  of  those  mountains  that  form  a  Noosha- 
gak  divide.  One  of  them  rises  in  an  oval-pointed  crest  to  a  very 
considerable  elevation  *  above  all  the  rest,  and  is  the  landmark  of 
every  traveller  who  comes  over  the  Yukon  divide  to  Kolmakov. 
The  river  here,  as  it  brawls  swiftly  in  its  course,  is  about  seven 
hundred  feet  in  width,  with  bends  above  and  below  where  it  ex- 
pands to  fully  twice  that  distance. 

While  the  Kuskokvim  is  the  only  considerable  rival  of  the  Yukon 
in  this  whole  Alaskan  country,  yet  when  seriously  contrasted  with 
the  great  Kvichpak  f  itself,  then  the  Kuskokvim  bears  about  the 
same  resemblance  to  it  that  the  Ohio  River  does  to  the  Mississippi. 

Kolmakovsky  marks  the  limit  of  inland  migration  allotted  to 
the  Innuit  race  on  its  banks,  who  are  not  permitted  by  those  Tinneh 
tribes  of  the  interior  to  advance  farther  up  the  river.  It  is  also 
removed  from  that  disagreeable  influence  of  Bering  Sea,  where  the 
prevalence  of  rain  and  of  furious  protracted  gales  of  wind  make  life 
a  burden  to  a  white  man  on  the  Lower  Kuskokvim.  Its  environ- 
ing forests  break  the  force  of  these  storms,  and  there  is  also  less 
fog,  so  that  the  sun  usually  shines  out  clear  and  hot,  especially  in 
July  and  August. 

In  the  winter  season,  when  frost  has  locked  up  miry  swales  and 
swamps,  and  snow  lies  in  deep,  limitless  drifts,  a  white  hunter  at 
Kolmakov  can  join  the  Kuskokvamoots  in  trailing  and  shooting 
giant  moose  which  come  down  from  the  mountains  of  the  Noosh- 
agak  divide.  This  animal  is  quickly  apprehended  by  the  native 
dogs,  so  that  whenever  winter  weather  will  permit,  a  native  Innuit 
spends  most  of  his  time,  not  employed  by  ice-fishing  on  the  Kus- 
kokvim, in  this  sport. 

The  fur-trade  at  Kolmakovsky  is  quite  active,  but  it  is  almost  ex- 
clusively transacted  with  a  few  Indians  up  the  river,  and  not  with 
the  numerous  Innuits  below.  The  latter  are,  commercially  speak- 
ing, very  poor,  having  not  much  of  anything  but  little  stores  of 


*  Mount  Tamahloopat :  two  thousand  eight  hundred  feet. 

f  The  Russians  and  natives  always  called  the  Yukon  River  by  this  name. 
Our  change  was  first  made  by  those  Hudson  Bay  traders  who  came  over  to  it 
from  the  Mackenzie,  and  was  subsequently  universally  adopted- 


408  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

"mahklok"  seal-oil.  These  big  phocaceans  are  almost  as  great 
fishermen  as  the  Innuits  are  themselves,  and  find  the  mouth  of  the 
Kuskokvim  as  attractive  as  it  is  to  their  human  foes.  In  this  frame 
of  mind  the  mahklok  ventures  on  to  those  tidal  banks  of  the  estuary 
below,  and  this  rash  habit  enables  the  natives  to  capture  a  great 
many  of  them  there  every  year.  Those  Innuits  below  Kolmakovsky 
have  no  land-furs  whatever,  save  a  few  inferior  mink-skins ;  but 
they  trade  their  surplus  seal-oil  with  the  Indians  above  and  on  the 
Yukon  for  that  ground-squirrel  parka  and  tanned  moose-skin  shirt 
which  they  universally  wear.  There  is  an  exceeding  rankness  to 
an  odor  of  rancid  fish-oil,  but  the  aroma  from  a  bag  of  putrescent 
seal-oil  is  simply  abominable  and  stifling  to  a  Caucasian  nose — an 
acrid  funk,  which  pervades  everything,  and  hangs  to  it  for  an  indefin- 
ite length  of  time  afterward  in  spite  of  every  effort  made  to  disinfect. 

The  Indians  of  the  Upper  Kuskokvim  were  once  said  to  be  a 
very  numerous  tribe  ;  but  the  severity  of  successive  cold  winters 
has  so  destroyed  them,  as  a  people,  that  to-day  they  exist  there  as 
a  feeble  remnant  only  of  what  they  once  were.  An  intelligent 
trader,  Sipari,  who  has  traversed  their  entire  country,  in  1872-76, 
declares  that  "forty  tents,"  or  one  hundred  souls  is  an  ample  enu- 
meration of  their  number. 

The  Innuits  of  the  Lower  Kuskokvim  are  much  better  physical 
specimens  of  humanity  than  are  those  of  their  race  living  on  the 
Lower  Yukon.  These  latter  are  called  by  all  traders  the  most 
clumsy  and  degraded  of  Alaskan  savages.  The  portage  from  Kol- 
makovsky to  the  Kvichpak  is  only  three  days'  journey  in  winter,  or 
five  days  by  water  in  canoes,  during  summer.  It  is  a  trip  made  by 
large  numbers  of  the  natives  of  both  streams,  in  the  progress  of 
their  natural  barter  and  moose-hunting. 

The  forests  of  the  Kuskokvim  and  the  Nooshagak  mountains 
and  uplands  are  frequently  swept  by  terrible  conflagrations,  which 
utterly  destroy  whole  areas  of  timber  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach. 
This  ruin  of  fire,  of  course,  absolutely  extinguishes  all  trapping  for 
any  fur-bearing  animal  hitherto  found  in  those  brule  tracts,  and  en- 
tails much  privation  upo^  the  natives  who  have  been  accustomed  to 
gain  their  best  livelihood  largely  by  hunting  in  those  sections.  A 
burnt  district  presents  a  desolate  front  for  years  after  ;  the  fire 
does  not,  in  its  swift  passage,  do  more,  at  first,  than  burn  the  foli- 
age and  smaller  limbs  of  trees  in  a  dense  spruce  forest ;  but  it 
roasts  the  bark  and  kills  a  trunk,  so  that  all  sap-circulation  is  forever 


INNUIT   LIFE    AND   LAND.  409 

at  an  end  in  it  As  the  years  roll  by,  these  trunks  gradually  bleach 
out  to  almost  a  grayish  white,  the  charred,  blackened  bark  is  all 
weathered  off,  and  gradually  such  trees  fall,  as  they  decay  at  the 
stump,  in  every  conceivable  direction  upon  the  ground,  across  one 
another,  like  so  many  jack-straws,  making  a  perfectly  impassable 
barricade  to  human  travel  without  tedious  labor.  A  brisk  growth 
of  small  poplars,  birch,  and  willow  springs  up  in  place  of  the  orig- 
inal spruce  forest,  but  none  of  these  trees  and  shrubs  ever  grow  to 
any  great  size.  At  rare  intervals  a  young  evergreen  is  seen  to  rise 
in  sharp  relief,  towering  over  all  deciduous  shrubbery,  and  in  the 
lapse  of  long  years  it  will  succeed  in  supplanting  every  growing 
thing  around  with  its  own  kind  again. 


"Brule""  Desolation;  Alaskan  Interior. 
[A  view  on  the  Stickeen  Divide :  bears,  in  search  of  larvae,  ripping  open  decayed  logs.] 

The  traders  at  Kolmakovsky  make  up  their  furs  into  snug  bales 
and  descend  the  river  in  wooden  and  skin  boats,  every  June,  to  a 
point  below,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  where  they  meet 
their  respective  schooners,  or  go  still  lower  to  an  anchorage  of 
larger  vessels,  and  renew  their  annual  supplies.  These  river-boats 
are  then  poled  and  rope-walked  up  the  river  back  to  the  post.  The 
principal  trade  here  is  beaver,  red  foxes,  mink,  marten,  land-otter, 
and  brown  and  black  bears. 

The  traders  say  it  is  exceedingly  seldom  that  a  white  man 
ever  comes  in  contact  with  the  natives  of  the  Lower  Kuskokvim, 
and  that  there  is  nothing  to  call  them  there  ;  also,  that  the  labors 
of  the  Russian  missionaries  of  the  Yukon  never  extended  to  this  re- 
gion, though  their  registers  and  reports  show  quite  a  number  of 
Christians  on  the  Kuskokvim  River.  The  only  trace  of  Christian- 
ity among  this  tribe,  outside  of  the  immediate  vicinity  of  a  trad 


410  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

ing-station  with  its  chapel,  consists  of  a  few  scattered  crosses  in 
burial-places  adjoining  the  settlement.  At  the  village  of  Kaltkha- 
gamute,  within  three  days'  travel  of  the  Russian  mission  on  the 
Yukon,  a  graveyard  there  contains  a  remarkable  collection  of  gro- 
tesquely carved  monuments  and  memorial  posts,  indicating  very 
clearly  the  predominance  of  old  pagan  traditions  over  such  faint 
ideas  of  Christianity  as  may  have  been  introduced  for  these  peo- 
ple. Among  monuments  in  this  place  the  most  remarkable  is  that 
of  a  female  figure  with  four  arms  and  hands,  resembling  closely  a 
Hindoo  goddess,  even  to  its  almond  eyes  and  a  general  cast  of 
features.  Natural  hair  is  attached  to  its  head,  falling  over  the 
shoulders.  The  legs  of  this  figure  are  crossed  in  true  oriental  style, 
and  two  of  the  hands,  the  lower  pair,  hold  rusty  tin  plates,  upon 
which  offerings  of  tobacco  and  scraps  of  cotton  prints  have  been 
deposited.  The  whole  is  protected  by  a  small  roof  set  upon  posts. 

Other  burial  posts  are  scarcely  less  remarkable  in  variety  of  feat- 
ure and  coloring,  and  the  whole  collection  would  afford  a  rich  har- 
vest of  specimens  to  any  museum.  Nearly  all  these  figures  are 
human  «ffigies,  though  grotesque  and  misshapen,  and  drawn  out  of 
proportion.  No  images  of  animals  or  birds,  which  would  have  in- 
dicated the  existence  of  totems  and  clans  in  the  tribe,  were  to  be 
seen  ;  but  here  and  there,  over  apparently  neglected  graves,  a  stick, 
surmounted  by  a  very  rude  carving  of  a  fish,  a  deer,  or  a  beluga,  indi- 
cative of  the  calling  of  the  deceased  hunter,  could  be  discovered. 

Petroff,  who  has  made  the  only  hand-to-hand  examination  ever 
conducted,  by  a  white  man,  of  the  people  of  the  Lower  Kuskok- 
vim,  says  that  they  resemble  in  outward  appearance  their  Eskimo 
neighbors  in  the  north  and  west,  but  their  complexion  is  perhaps  a 
little  darker.  The  men  are  distinguished  from  those  of  other  In- 
nuit  tribes  by  having  more  hair  on  the  faces  ;  mustaches  being 
quite  common,  even  with  youths  of  from  twenty  to  twenty-five, 
while  in  other  tribes  this  hirsute  appendage  does  not  make  its  ap- 
pearance until  the  age  of  thirty-five  or  forty.  Their  hands  and  feet 
are  small,  but  both  sexes  are  muscular  and  well  developed,  inclined 
rather  to  embonpoint.  In  their  garments  they  differ  but  little  from 
their  neighbors  hitherto  described,  with  an  exception  of  the  male 
upper  garment,  or  parka,  which  reaches  down  to  the  feet,  even 
dragging  a  little  upon  the  ground,  making  it  necessary  to  gird  it 
up  for  purposes  of  walking.  The  female  parkas  are  a  little  shorter. 
Both  garments  are  made  of  the  skins  of  ground-squirrels,  orna- 


INNUIT   LIFE    AND   LAND.  411 

mented  with  pieces  of  red  cloth  and  bits  of  tails  of  that  rodent.  The 
women  wear  no  head-covering  except  in  the  depth  of  winter,  when 
they  pull  the  hoods  of  reindeer  parkas  over  their  heads.  The  men 
wear  caps,  made  of  the  skin  of  an  Arctic  marmot,  resembling  in  shape 
those  famous  Scotch  "bonnets,"  so  commonly  worn  by  Canadians. 

Many  young  men  wear  a  small  band  of  fur  around  the  head, 
into  which  they  insert  eagle  and  hawk-feathers  on  festive  occasions. 
A  former  custom  of  this  tribe,  of  inserting  thin  strips  of  bone  or 
the  quills  of  porcupines  through  an  aperture  cut  in  the  septum, 
seems  to  have  become  obsolete,  though  the  nasal  slit  can  still  be 
seen  on  all  grown  male  individuals.  Their  ears  are  also  universally 
pierced  for  an  insertion  of  pendants,  but  these  seem  at  present  to 
be  worn  by  children  only,  who  discard  them  as  they  grow  up.  In 
fact,  all  ornamentation  in  the  shape  of  beads,  shells,  etc.,  appears  to 
be  lavished  upon  their  little  ones,  who  toddle  about  with  pendants 
rattling  from  ears,  nose,  and  lower  lip,  and  attired  in  frocks  stiff 
Avith  embroidery  of  beads  or  porcupine-quills,  while  the  older  girls 
and  boys  run  almost  naked,  and  the  parents  themselves  are  imper- 
fectly protected  against  cold  and  weather  by  a  single  fur  garment. 

The  use  of  the  true  Eskimo  kayak  is  universal  among  the  Kus- 
kokvagmute,  but  in  timbered  regions  of  the  upper  river,  in  the 
vicinity  of  Kolmakovsky,  the  birch-bark  canoe  also  is  quite  com- 
mon. The  latter,  however,  is  not  used  for  extended  voyages  or  for 
hunting,  but  is  reserved  chiefly  for  attending  to  fish-traps,  for  the 
use  of  women  in  their  berrying  and  fishing  expeditions,  and  for 
crossing  rivers  and  streams. 

The  only  indigenous  fruit  which  this  large  population  of  the 
Lower  Kuskokvim  can  enjoy  is  that  of  the  pretty  little  "  moroshkie," 
or  red  raspberry,*  which  grows  in  great  abundance  on  its  short, 
tiny  stalks  throughout  all  swales  and  over  rolling  tundra.  These 
berries  are  saturated  in  rancid  oil,  however,  before  they  are  eaten 
to  any  great  extent,  being  air-dried  first  and  pressed  into  thin  cakes ; 
then,  as  wanted,  they  are  pounded  up  in  mortars  and  boiled,  or 
simply  thrown  into  a  wooden  basin  (or  kantag)  of  oil.  Then  the 
fingers,  or  rude  horn  spoons,  are  dipped  in  by  happy  feeders,  who 
apparently  relish  this  ill-savored  combination  just  as  keenly  as  one 
of  our  Gothamitic  gourmands  appreciates  the  flavor  of  a  Chesapeake 
terrapin  stewed  in  champagne. 

*  Rubua  chamwmorus. 


CHAPTER  XIH. 
LONELY  NORTHERN  WASTES. 

The  Mississippi  of  Alaska  :  the  Yukon  River,  and  its  Thorough  Exploration.  — 
Its  vast  Deltoid  Mouth. — Cannot  be  Entered  by  Sea-going  Vessels. — Its 
Valley,  and  its  Tributaries. —Dividing  Line  between  the  Eskimo  and  the 
Indian  on  its  Banks. — The  Trader's  Steamer  ;  its  Whistle  in  this  Lone 
Waste  of  the  Yukon. — Michaelovsky,  the  Trading  Centre  for  this  Exten- 
sive Circumpolar  Area. — The  Characteristic  Beauties  of  an  Arctic  Land- 
scape in  Summer. — Thunder-storms  on  the  Upper  Yukon  ;  never  Experi- 
enced on  the  Coast  and  at  its  Mouth. — Gorgeous  Arches  of  Auroral  Light; 
Beautiful  Spectacular  Fires  in  the  Heavens. — Unhappy  Climate. — Saint 
Michael's  to  the  Northward. — Zagoskin,  the  Intrepid  Young  Russian  Ex- 
plorer, 1842. — Snow  Blizzards. — Golovin  Bay  ;  our  People  Prospecting 
there  for  Lead  and  Silver. — Drift-wood  from  the  Yukon  Strews  the 
Beaches  of  Bering  Sea. — Ookivok,  and  its  Cliff-cave  Houses. — Hardy 
Walrus-hunters. — Grantley  Harbor;  a  Reminder  of  a  Costly  American 
Enterprise  and  its  Failure. — Cape  Prince  of  Wales — facing  Asia,  thirty-six 
miles  away. — Simeon  Deschnev,  the  first  White  Man  to  see  Alaska,  1648. 
His  Bold  Journey. — The  Diomede  Islands  ;  Stepping-stones  between  Asia 
and  America  in  Bering  Straits. — Kotzebue  Sound  ;  the  Rendezvous  for 
Arctic  Traders ;  the  Last  Northern  Station  Visited  by  Salmon. — Interest- 
ing Features  of  the  Place. 

Lo !  to  the  wintry  winds  the  pilot  yields, 
His  bark  careering  o'er  unfathomed  fields, 
Now  far  he  sweeps,  where  scarce  a  summer  smiles, 
On  Behring's  rocks,  or  Greenland's  naked  isles. 

— CAMPBELL. 

Is  it  not  a  little  singular  that  the  lonely  and  monotonous  course  of 
the  Yukon  River,  reaching  as  it  does  to  the  very  limits  of  the  path- 
less interior  of  a  vast,  unexplored  region  on  either  side,  should  be 
that  one  section  of  all  others  in  Alaska  the  best  known  to  us  ?  An 
almost  uninterrupted  annual  march  has  been  made  up  and  down 
its  dreary  banks  since  1865,  by  men  *  well  qualified  to  describe  its 

*  The  first  white  man  to  enter  the  Yukon  and  behold  its  immense  volume 
was  Glazoonov,  a  Russian  post-trader  of  the  old  Company,  who,  with  a  small 


LONELY   NORTHERN   WASTES.  413 

varying  moods  and  endless  shoals — every  turn  in  its  flood,  every 
shelving  bank  of  alluvium  or  rocky  bluff  that  lines  the  margin  of 
its  turbid  current,  has  been  minutely  examined,  named  and  renamed 
to  suit  the  occasion  and  character  of  a  traveller. 

The  Yukon  Kiver  is  not  reached  by  traders  as  any  other  stream 
of  size  is  in  Alaska,  by  sailing  into  its  mouth.  No  ocean-going 
craft  can  get  within  sixty  miles  of  its  deltoid  entrance.  Were  a 
sailor  foolhardy  enough  to  attempt  such  a  thing,  he  would  be  hard 
aground,  in  soft  silt  or  mud,  a  hundred  miles  from  land  in  a 
direct  line  from  the  point  of  his  destination.  Therefore  it  is  the 
habit  of  mariners  to  sail  up  as  far  north  as  Norton's  Sound,  and 
then  turn  a  little  to  the  southward  and  anchor  their  schooners  or 
steamers  under  a  lee  of  Stuart's  and  St.  Michael's  Islands,  where 
the  old  post  of  Michaelovsky  is  established  on  the  latter. 

The  "  Kedoute  Saint  Michael "  was  founded  here  in  1835  by 
Lieutenant  Tebenkov,  and  has  been  ever  since,  and  is  to-day,  the 
most  important  post  in  the  Alaskan  North.  This  post  is  a  ship- 
ping point  for  the  accumulated  furs  gathered  by  all  traders  from 
the  Lower  and  Upper  Yukon,  and  the  Tannanah,  the  annual  yield 
from  such  points  being  the  largest  and  the  most  valuable  catch  of 
land-furs  taken  in  Alaska.  A  vessel  coming  into  Si  Michael's  at  any 
time  during  the  summer  will  find,  encamped  around  its  ware- 
houses many  bands  of  Innuits  and  Indians  who  have  come  in  there, 
over  long  distances  of  hundreds  of  miles,  from  the  north,  east,  and 
south.  They  are  there  as  traders  and  middlemen.  The  fur-trad- 
ing on  the  Yukon  is  very  irregular  as  to  its  annual  time  and  place — 
the  traders  constantly  moving  from  settlement  to  settlement,  be- 
cause this  year  they  may  get  only  a  thousand  skins  where  they  got 

band  of  promishlyniks,  managed  to  overcome  the  hostility  of  the  natives  suf- 
ficiently to  get  up  as  far  as  the  present  site  of  Nulato.  This  was  in  1833. 
Lieutenant  Zagoskin,  of  the  Russian  Navy,  made  a  thorough  engineering  ex- 
amination of  the  river  up  as  far  as  the  "  Ramparts,"  between  the  years  1842- 
45,  inclusive,  locating  its  positions  and  courses  by  astronomical  and  magnetic 
observations.  After  him,  named  in  regular  order  of  their  priority  in  visiting 
the  river,  came  the  following  Americans,  the  first  in  1865,  the  last  in  1885  : — 
Kennicott,  Pease,  Adams,  Ketchum,  Dall,  Whymper,  Mercier,  Raymond,  Hill 
and  Shaw  (two  miners,  from  its  very  source),  Nelson,  Petroff,  then  Schwatka 
and  Everett  (also  from  its  source).  All  of  these  men  have  given  to  the  world 
more  or  less  elaborate  accounts  of  the  Yukon  through  the  medium  of  pub- 
lished works,  letters,  and  lectures.  The  literature  on  the  single  subject  of  the 
Kvichpak  is  decidedly  voluminous. 


414 


OUR   ARCTIC   PEOVINCE. 


five  thousand  last  season,  and  vice  versa.  It  is  impossible  to  locate 
the  best  single  spots  for  trade  ;  the  catch  in  different  sections  will 
vary  every  winter  according  to  the  depth  of  snow,  the  severity  of 
climate,  the  prevalence  of  forest  fires,  or  starvation  of  whole  vil- 
lages, owing  to  unwonted  absence  of  fish,  and  so  on. 

In  midsummer  the  Yukon  is  reached  by  small,  light-draft,  stern- 
wheel  steamers,  which,  watching  their  opportunity,  run  down  from 
St.  Michael's  and  enter  its  mouth,  towing  behind  them  a  string  of 
five  or  six  large  wooden  boats  which  are  each  laden  with  several 
tons  of  merchandise.  The  scream  of  their  whistles  and  puffing  of 
these  little  trading-steamers  as  they  slowly  drag  such  tows  against 


Trader's  Steamer  towing  Bateaux  laden  with  Goods  up  the  Yukon. 
\The  Kvichpakjust  below  Mercier^s  Station.} 

a  rapid  current,  is  the  only  enlivenment  which  the  immense  lonely 
solitudes  of  the  Yukon  are  subjected  to  by  our  people.  That  area 
of  watery  waste  is  so  wide  and  long,  and  the  boats  are  so  small  and 
few  in  number,  that  even  this  innovation  must  be  watched  for  every 
year  with  a  hawk's  eye,  or  it  will  pass  unobserved. 

The  waters  of  the  Kvichpak  are  discharged  into  Bering  Sea 
through  a  labyrinth  of  blind,  misleading  channels,  sloughs,  and 
swamps,  which  extend  for  more  than  one  hundred  miles  up  until 
they  unite  near  Chatinak  with  the  main  channel  of  that  great  river. 
This  enormous  deltoid  mouth  of  the  Yukon  is  a  most  mournful  and 
depressing  prospect.  The  country  itself  is  scarcely  above  the  level 
of  tides,  and  covered  with  a  monotonous  cloak  of  scrubby  willows 
and  rank  sedges.  It  is  water,  water — here,  there,  and  everywhere 


LONELY   NORTHERN   WASTES.  415 

— a  vast  inland  sea  filled  with  thousands  upon  thousands  of  swale 
islets  scarcely  peeping  above  its  surface.  Broader  and  narrower 
spaces  between  low  delta  lands  are  where  the  whirl  of  its  current 
is  strongly  marked  by  a  rippling  rush  and  the  drift-logs  that  it 
carries  upon  its  muddy  bosom.  These  are  the  channels,  the  paths 
through  the  maze  that  leads  from  the  sea  up  to  the  river  proper  ; 
and  where  they  unite,  at  a  point  above  Andrievsky  and  Chatinak, 
the  Yukon  has  a  breadth  of  twenty  miles ;  and  again,  at  many 
places,  away  on  and  up  this  impressive  stream  as  far  as  seven  or 
eight  hundred  miles  beyond,  this  same  great  width  will  be  observed, 
but  the  depth  is  very  much  decreased. 

Myriads  of  breeding  geese,  ducks,  and  wading  water-fowl  resort 
to  this  desolation  of  the  deltoid  mouth  of  the  Yukon,  where,  in 
countless  pools  and  the  thick  covers  of  tall  grass  and  sedge,  they 
are  provided  with  a  most  lavish  abundance  of  food  and  afforded 
the  happiest  shelter  from  enemies ;  but  the  stolid  Innuit  does  not 
affect  the  place.  The  howling  wintry  gales  and  frightful  curse  of 
mosquitoes  in  the  summer  are  too  much  even  for  him.  His  people 
live  in  only  six  or  seven  small  wretched  hamlets  below  Andrievsky 
and  Chatinak — less  than  five  hundred  souls  in  all,  including  the  en- 
tire population  found  right  on  the  coast  of  the  delta,  between  Pas- 
tolik  in  the  north  and  Cape  Romiantzov  on  the  south.  Above 
Anvik  on  the  main  river  the  Innuit  does  not  like  to  go.  He  has  no 
love  for  those  Indians  who  claim  that  region  all  to  themselves  and 
resent  his  appearance  on  the  scene.  Whenever  he  does,  however,* 
he  is  always  in  company  with  the  traders,  and  he  never  gets  out  of 
their  sight  and  protection,  even  when  making  that  overland  portage 
from  Si  Michael's  by  the  Oonalakleet  trail. 

As  we  emerge  from  those  dreary,  low  and  watery  wastes  of  the 
delta  at  Chatinak,  the  bluffs  there,  though  desolate  enough  them- 
selves, with  their  rusty  barren  slopes,  yet  they  give  us  cheerful  as- 
surance of  the  fact  that  all  Alaska  is  not  under  water,  and  that  the 
borders  of  its  big  river  are  at  last  defined  on  both  sides.  High  roll- 
ing hills  come  down  boldly  on  the  left  bank  as  we  ascend  ;  but  the 
right  shore  is  still  low  and  but  little  removed  from  the  flatness  of  a 
swale.  The  channel  of  the  river  now  zigzags  from  side  to  side  (in 
the  usual  way  of  running  bodies  of  water  which  wash  out  and 
undermine),  building  up  bars  and  islets,  and  sweeping  in  its  resist- 
less flood  an  immense  aggregate  of  soil  and  timber  far  into  Bering 
Sea.  The  alluvial  banks,  wherever  they  are  lifted  above  this  surging 


416  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

current,  which  runs  at  an  average  rate  of  eight  miles  an  hour,  are 
continually  caving  down,  undermined,  and  washed  away.  So  sudden 
and  precipitate  are  these  landslides,  sometimes,  that  they  have  almost 
destroyed  whole  trading  expeditions  of  the  Russians  and  natives,  who 
barely  had  time  to  escape  with  their  lives  as  the  earthy  avalanches 
rolled  down  upon  the  river's  edge  and  into  its  resistless  current. 

Above  the  delta  large  spruce  and  fir-trees,  aspens,  poplars,  and 
plats  of  alders  and  willows  grow  abundantly  on  the  banks ;  but 
they  do  not  extend  far  back  from  the  river  on  either  side  into  any  por- 
tions of  the  country,  which  is  low  and  marshy,  and  which  embraces 
so  large  a  proportion  of  the  entire  landscape.  Small  larch-trees  are 
also  interspersed.  The  river  is  filled  with  a  multitude  of  long,  nar- 
row islands,  all  timbered  as  the  banks  are,  and  which  are  connected 
one  with  the  other  by  sand  and  gravel  bars,  that  are  always  dry  and 
fully  exposed  at  low-water  stages.  Immense  piles  of  bleached  and 
splintered  drift-logs  are  raised  on  the  upper  ends  of  these  islands, 
having  lodged  there  at  intervals  when  high  water  was  booming 
down. 

Between  Anvik  and  Paimoot  are  many  lofty  clay  cliffs,  entirely 
made  up  of  clean,  pure  earth  of  different  bright  colors — red,  yellow, 
straw-colored,  and  white,  with  many  intermediate  shades.  The 
Yukon  runs  down  from  its  remote  sources  at  the  Stickeen  divide 
in  British  Columbia,  down  through  a  wild,  semi- wooded  country,  a 
succession  of  lakes  and  lakelets,  through  a  region  almost  devoid  of 
human  life.  That  extensive  area,  wherein  we  find  such  scant  or  ut- 
ter absence  of  population,  is,  south  of  the  Yukon,  very  densely  tim- 
bered with  spruce-trees  on  the  mountains,  and  with  poplars,  birch, 
willow,  along  the  courses  of  the  stream  and  margins  of  the  lakes. 
Its  immediate  recesses  only  are  occasionally  penetrated  by  roving 
parties  of  Indian  hunters,  who  now  and  then  leave  the  great  river 
and  the  Tannanah  for  that  purpose.  It  is  a  silent,  gloomy  wilder- 
ness. To  the  northward  of  the  Yukon  this  variety  in  timber  still 
continues ;  indeed,  it  reaches  as  far  into  the  Arctic  Circle  and  tow- 
ard the  ocean  there  as  the  seaward  slopes  of  those  low  and  rolling 
mountains  extend,  which  rise  in  irregular  ridges  trending  northeast 
and  southwest.  These  hills  are  between  one  hundred  and  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles  from  the  banks  of  the  Kvichpak.  Beyond  this 
divide  and  water-shed  of  the  northern  tributaries  of  the  Yukon  a 
forest  seldom  appears  in  any  case  whatsoever,  except  where  a  low, 
straggling  spur  of  hills  stretches  itself  down  to  the  shores  of  an 


LONELY   NORTHERN   WASTES.  417 

icy  sea  ;  but  it  is  stunted  and  scant  in  its  hyperborean  distribution 
thereon. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  into  a  description  of  the  appearance 
and  disposition  of  these  Yukon  Indians  who  live  on  this  great  river 
above  Anvik,  since  they  resemble  those  savages  which  we  are  so 
familiar  with  in  the  British  American  interior,  Oregon,  and  Dakota. 

The  Russians,  in  regarding  them,  at  once  took  notice  of  their 
marked  difference  from  the  more  stolid  Innuits,  so  that  they  were 
styled,  jocularly,  by  Slavonian  pioneers,  "  Frenchmen  of  the  North," 
and  "Gens  de  Butte."  The  Innuits  called  them  "Ingaleeks,"  and 
that  is  their  general  designation  on  the  river  to-day.  They  differ 
from  our  Plain  Indians  in  this  respect  only  :  they  are  all  dog- 
drivers.  They  rely  upon  the  river  and  its  tributaries  largely  for 
food,  using  birch-bark  canoes — no  skin -boats  whatever.  They  have 
an  overflowing  abundance  of  natural  food-supply  of  flesh,  and  fowl 
also,  and  when  they  suffer,  as  they  often  do,  from  starvation,  it  is 
due  entirely  to  their  own  startling  improvidence  during  seasons  of 
plenty,  which  occur  every  year.  A  decided  infusion  of  Innuit  blood 
will  be  observed  in  the  faces  of  the  Indians  who  live  at  Anvik,  and 
some  distance  up  the  river  from  that  point  of  landed  demarcation 
between  Innuit  and  Ingaleek.  In  olden  times  the  latter  were  wont 
to  raid  upon  the  settlements  of  the  former,  and  carried  off  Innuit 
women  into  captivity  whenever  they  could  do  so,  treating  the  Es- 
kimo just  as  the  Romans  raped  the  Sabines. 

An  Innuit  is  not  thrifty  at  all,  but  when  brought  into  compari- 
son with  the  Indian  he  is  a  bright  and  shining  light  in  this  re- 
spect. Among  the  Ingaleeks  of  the  Yukon  a  spring  famine  regularly 
prevails  ever}7  year  during  the  months  of  April  and  May,  or  until 
the  ice  breaks  up  and  the  salmon  run.  One  would  naturally  think 
that  the  bitter  memories  of  gnawing  hunger  endured  for  weeks  be- 
fore an  arrival  of  abundant  food,  would  stimulate  that  savage  to 
glad  exertion  when  it  did  arrive  so  as  to  lay  by  of  such  abundance 
enough  to  insure  him  and  his  family  against  recurring  starvation 
next  year.  Strange  to  say,  it  does  not.  The  fish  come  ;  the  fam- 
ished natives  gorge  themselves,  and  thus  engorged,  loaf  and  idle 
that  time  away  which  should  be  employed  in  drying  and  preserving 
at  least  sufficient  to  keep  them  in  stock  when  the  fish  have  left  the 
stream.  Often  we  will  actually  see  them  lazily  going  to  their 
slender  store  which  they  have  newly  prepared,  and  eat  thereof, 
while  salmon  are  still  running  in  the  river  at  their  feet !  Such  im- 
27 


418  OUR  AECTIC   PROVINCE. 

providence  and  reckless  disregard  of  the  need  of  the  morrow  is 
hard  indeed  for  us  to  realize.  Many  of  the  beasts  of  the  field  and 
forest  with  which  the  savage  is  well  acquainted  set  him  annually, 
but  in  vain,  a  better  example. 

White  traders  during  the  last  twenty  years  have  so  thoroughly 
traversed  the  course  of  the  Yukon,  and,  since  our  control  of  Alaska, 
little  stern-wheel  steamers  annually  make  trips  from  the  sea,  accom- 
panied with  retinues  of  white  men — these  incidents  have  thoroughly 
familiarized  the  Indians  here  with  ourselves.  But  the  wilder  In- 
galeeks  of  the  Tannanah,  only  six  or  seven  hundred  souls  in  num- 
ber, however,  are  as  yet  comparatively  unknown  to  us.  With  an 
exception  of  a  white  trader's  visit  to  their  country  in  1875,*  and 
the  recent  descent  of  the  Tannanah  by  a  plucky  young  officer  of 
the  United  States  Army,f  these  Koltchanes  have  been  unknown 
at  home  and  wholly  undisturbed  by  us.  There  are  less  than 
sixteen  hundred  Indians  living  over  the  entire  Yukon  region — a 
fact  which  speaks  eloquently  for  an  exceeding  scantiness  of  the 
population  of  that  vast  landed  expanse  of  this  interior  of  the  Alas- 
kan mainland — a  great  arctic  moor  north  of  the  Kvichpak,  which 
is  a  mere  surface  of  slightly  thawed  swale,  swampy  tundra,  lakes 
and  pools,  sloughs  and  sluggish  rivers,  in  the  summer  solstice, 
while  the  wildest  storms  of  frigid  winds,  laden  with  snow  and 
sleet,  career  in  unchecked  fury  over  them  during  winter.  Such  an 
extreme  climate  is  the  full  secret  of  its  marked  paucity  of  human 
life.  But  that  desolation  of  winter  does  not  prevent  an  immense 
migration  of  animal  life  to  this  repellant  section  every  summer  from 
the  south.  Myriads  of  water-fowl,  such  as  geese,  ducks,  and  the 
smaller  forms,  breed  and  moult  here  then  in  all  security,  and  free 
from  molestation,  while  great  herds  of  reindeer  troop  over  the 
lichen-bearing  ridges.  The  musk-ox,  however,  has  never  been 
known  to  range  here  or  anywhere  in  Alaska  within  the  memory  of 
man.  Its  fossil  remains  have  been  disinterred  from  the  banks  of 
the  Yukon,  at  several  places  (just  as  those  of  the  mammoth  have), 
but  that,  with  a  few  bleached  skulls,  is  the  only  record  of  this 
animal  we  can  find  which  we  would  most  naturally  anticipate  meet- 
ing with  on  such  ground,  apparently  so  well  adapted  for  it. 

*  Francois  Mercier,  according  to  whom  "Ingaleek"  signifies  "  incompre- 
hensible." 

f  Lieutenant  H.  T.  Allen,  Engineer  Corps,  United  States  Army. 


LONELY   NORTHERN   WASTES. 


419 


There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  whether  the  Yukon  or 
the  Mississippi  is  the  larger  river,  with  respect  to  the  volume  of 
their  currents.  The  variation  in  this  regard  can  hardly  be  very 
great,  either  one  way  or  the  other.  The  Tannanah  is  the  Missouri 
of  the  Kvichpak,  and  swells  the  flood  of  that  river  very  perceptibly 
below  its  junction. 

Michaelovsky  has  been,  and  will  continue  to  be,  the  chief  ren- 
dezvous of  a  small  white  residency  of  the  Alaskan  North.  It  is 
an  irregularly  built  omnium  of  old  Russian  dwellings,  warehouses, 
and  a  few  of  our  own  structure.  The  stockade  which  once  encir- 
cled it  has  long  ago  been  dispensed  with,  though  the  antique  bas- 


Michaelovsky. 
[Extreme  northern  settlement  of  white  Americans.] 

tions  and  old  brass  cannon  still  stand  at  one  or  two  corners  as  they 
stood  in  early  times,  well  placed  to  overawe  and  intimidate  a  bold 
and  hostile  savage  people  then  surrounding  them.  The  buildings  are 
clustered  together  on  a  small  peninsula  of  an  island,  about  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  feet  above  high- water  mark  ;  littered  all  around  them 
are  the  small  outbuildings  and  the  summer  tents  of  Innuit  and 
Indian  tourists  who  are  loitering  about  for  the  double  purpose  of 
gratifying  a  little  curiosity,  and  of  trading.  An  abundance  of  drift- 
wood from  the  Yukon  lies  stranded  on  the  beaches,  and  a  large  pile 
of  picked,  straight  logs  have  been  hauled  from  the  water  and  stacked 
upon  one  side  of  a  slope.  The  whole  country,  hill  and  plain,  in 
every  direction  from  this  post  is  a  flat  and  alternately  rolling  moor- 
land, or  tundra,  the  covering  of  which  is  composed  principally  of 


420  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

mosses  and  lichens,  and  a  sphagnous  combination  which  produces 
in  the  short  growing  season  a  yellowish-green  carpet,  with  patches 
of  pale  lavender  gray  where  the  lichens  are  most  abundant.  At 
sparse  and  irregular  intervals  bunches  of  coarse  sedge  grasses  rise, 
and  the  entire  surface  of  moor  is  crossed  at  various  angles  with 
lines  of  dwarf  birches  and  an  occasional  clump  of  alders  and 
stunted  willows.  The  most  attractive  feature  in  such  an  arctic  land- 
scape, when  summer  has  draped  it  as  we  now  behold  it,  is  the  nod- 
ding seed-plumes  of  the  equisetum  grasses — they  are  tufts  of  a  pure, 
fleecy  white  that,  ruffled  in  the  breeze,  light  up  the  sombre  rus- 
set swales  with  an  almost  electrical  beauty.  Everywhere  here,  in 
less  than  eighteen  inches  or  two  feet  beneath  this  blossoming  flora, 
will  be  found  a  solid  foundation  of  perpetual  frost  and  ice — it  never 
thaws  lower.  The  flowers  of  that  tundra  embrace  a  list  of  over 
forty  beautiful  species,  chief  among  them  being  phloxes,  a  pale- 
blue  iris,  white  and  yellow  poppies,  several  varieties  of  the  red- 
flowered  saxifrages,  the  broad-leaved  archangelica,  and  many  deli- 
cately fronded  ferns. 

Twittering,  darting  flocks  of  barn-swallows  hover  and  glide  over 
the  old  faded  roofs  and  walls  of  Michaelovsky,  and  the  bells  of  a 
red-painted  church,  just  beyond,  come  jangling  sweetly  across  the 
water,  mingled  with  that  homelike  chattering  of  these  swallows. 
But  a  pious  mission  here  is  a  practical  failure  in  so  far  as  any  effect 
upon  the  Innuit  mind  is  concerned.  During  summer-time,  in  the 
Upper  Yukon  country,  thunder-showers  are  very  common  ;  down 
here,  on  the  coast,  they  are  never  experienced.  The  glory,  how- 
ever, of  an  auroral  display  is  divided  equally  between  them,  when 
from  September  until  March  luminous  waves  and  radii  of  pulsating 
rose,  purple,  green,  and  blue  flames  light  up  and  dance  about  the 
heavens — gorgeous  arches  of  yellow  bands  and  pencil-points  of 
crimson  fire  are  hung  and  glitter  in  the  zenith.  These  exhibitions 
beggar  description  ;  they  are  weirdly  and  surpassingly  beautiful, 
far  beyond  all  comparison  with  anything  else  of  a  spectacular  nature 
on  earth. 

In  the  autumn  and  in  the  early  days  of  December,  a  low  de- 
clination of  the  sun  tints  up  the  clouds  at  sunrise  and  sunset  into 
beautiful  masses  of  colors  that  rapidly  come  and  go  in  their  orig- 
ination and  fading.  Twilight  is  a  lovely  interval  of  the  day  in  this 
latitude,  and  is  even  enjoyed  by  the  hard-headed  traders  themselves. 
Winter  is  a  weary  drag  here — about  seven  months — lasting  from 


LONELY    NORTHERN   WASTES.  421 

October  until  well  into  May ;  but,  in  spite  of  its  intense  cold,  there 
are  many  long  periods  of  its  endurance  characterized  by  clear, 
lovely  weather,  while  the  wanner  summer  is  rendered  disagreeable 
by  a  large  number  of  cold  misty  days,  rain,  and  gloomy  palls  of 
overhanging  clouds  which  shut  down  upon  everything  like  a  leaden 
cover. 

"\V»-  are  accustomed  to  associate  an  occurrence  of  a  real  mirage 
with  dry,  arid,  desert  countries,  where  the  thirsty  and  sun-burned 
traveller  is  mocked  by  illusions  of  clear  lakes  and  a  green  oasis  just 
ahead.  In  truth,  the  mirage  of  an  Alaskan  tundra  in  midwinter 
is  fully  as  remarkable,  and  quite  as  tantalizing.  When  the  trader 
starts  out  with  his  dog-team,  on  an  intensely  still,  cold  day,  the  vi- 
brations of  the  air  are  so  energetic  that  those  blades  of  grass  which 
stick  out  from  the  snow,  just  ahead,  seem  to  him  like  thickets  of  wil- 
low- and  birch-trees,  around  which  he  must  make  a  painful  detour. 
Then,  again,  the  ravines  and  valleys  are  transformed  into  vast  lakes, 
with  the  loftiest  and  most  precipitous  shores.  On  the  coast  here, 
during  cool,  clear  days  in  March,  hills,  which  are  thirty  or  seventy- 
five  miles  away  from  the  windows  of  Michaelovsky,  are  lifted  up 
and  transported  to  the  very  beach  of  the  island  itself,  contorted  and 
fantastic  changes  constantly  taking  place  in  the  picture,  until  sud- 
denly a  slight  something,  or  a  change  perhaps  in  an  observer's 
position,  causes  the  singular  delusion  to  vanish. 

St.  Michael's  is  all  by  itself  to-day  ;  yet  it,  at  one  time,  was  not 
the  only  settlement  on  the  island  ;  for,  close  by  the  fort,  there  were 
two  Mablemoot  villages,  Tahcik  and  Agahliak,  whose  inhabitants 
were  first  to  cordially  invite  the  Kussians  to  locate  here  in  1835. 
But  in  1842  the  ravages  of  small-pox  absolutely  depopulated  these 
native  towns,  and  a  few  survivors  fled  in  dismay  from  the  place — 
the)*  never  came  back,  nor  have  their  descendants  returned.  For 
some  reason  or  other  the  Russians  made  the  most  persistent  and 
energetic  attempt  to  develop  a  successful  vegetable  garden  in  this 
region  and  to  keep  cattle.  But,  beyond  a  small  exhibit  of  eatable 
cabbages,  good  radishes  and  turnips,  and  a  few  inferior  potatoes, 
grown  in  the  warm  sand-dunes  of  Oonalakleet,  nothing  more,  sub- 
stantially, ever  resulted  from  it. 

Generally  the  snow  falls,  at  Michaelovsky,  as  the  beginning  of 
its  hyemal  season,  about  October  1st,  and  by  October  20th  ice  has 
formed,  and  has  firmly  locked  up  the  Yukon  by  November  1st  to 
5th.  These  icy  fetters  break  away  by  June  5th,  and  in  a  week  or 


422  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

ten  days  the  great  river  is  entirely  clear.  The  sea  is  usually  cov- 
ered by  sludgy  floes  as  early  as  the  middle  or  end  of  every  Octo- 
ber, which  remain  opening  and  closing  irregularly  until  next  June. 
The  months  of  July  and  August  are  the  warmest,  ranging  from 
48°  to  54°  Fahr.  during  daytime.* 

From  St.  Michael's  to  the  westward  a  low  basaltic  chain  of  hills 
borders  the  coast,  and,  parallel  to  it  some  thirty  miles  inland,  a 
few  peaks  attain  an  elevation  of  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred 
feet.  Jutting  out  at  a  sharp  angle  from  this  volcanic  range  stands 
that  low  peninsula,  tipped  with  the  granitic  headland  named  (by 
Cook  more  than  a  century  ago)  Cape  Denbigh.  This  point  forms 
the  southern  wall  for  that  snug,  tightly  enclosed  Bay  of  Norton, 
thus  partitioned  off  from  a  sound  of  the  same  title.  The  Oona- 
lakleet  River  empties  into  Norton's  Sound,  at  a  point  about  mid- 
way between  Michaelovsky  and  Denbigh.  The  debouchure  of  this 
stream  is  marked  by  the  richest  vegetation  to  be  found  anywhere 
in  all  of  this  entire  region  north  of  Bristol  Bay.  It  is  due  to  the 
warm  sand-dune  flats  which  are  located  here  ;  and  here  is  one  of  the 
liveliest  Mahlemoot  villages  of  that  north.  That  river  is  an  exclu- 
sive gateway  to  the  Yukon  during  the  winter  season,  from  and  to 
Michaelovsky,  and  these  Innuits  are  the  chief  commission  mer- 
chants of  Alaska.  In  a  village,  now  called  Kegohtowik,  near  by, 
Zagoskin  received  his  first  initiation  into  the  wild  life  which  he  led 
up  here  as  an  explorer,  since  it  was  the  first  camp  f  he  ever  made 
among  the  Innuits  after  he  had  started  out  from  Michaelovsky. 
This  young  Russian  was  kindly  received  by  the  wondering  natives, 
who  unharnessed  his  dogs  and  hung  up  his  sleds  on  the  cache  scaf- 
folds as  a  token  of  their  hospitality.  Into  their  kashga  he  was 
taken  with  every  demonstration  of  regard  and  curiosity.  He  hap- 
pened to  have  arrived  just  as  these  people  were  preparing  for  and 
celebrating  a  great  festival  of  homage  to  an  Eskimo  sea-god  who 
rules  the  icy  waters  of  Bering  and  the  Arctic  Ocean.  He  quaintly 
records  their  proceeding  in  this  language  : 

*  An  average  temperature  prevails  in  this  region  for  the  year  as  follows : 
January,    —.5°          April,  22.1°  July,  53.1°          October,        28.0° 

February,  —.6°  May,    32.8°  August,        52.1°         November,  18.3° 

March,         9.5°          June,  45.2°  September,  43.3°         December,     8.9° 

f  December  5,  1842.  The  refreshing  honesty  and  frankness  of  this  ex- 
plorer's thorough  work  on  the  Yukon  and  Kuskokvim  deserve  to  be  better 
known. 


LONELY   NORTHERN    WASTES.  423 

"  I  had  an  opportunity  of  observing  the  natives  preparing  for 
great  festival  called  by  them  'drowning  little  bladders  in  the 
In  the  front  part  of  the  kashga,  on  a  strip  of  moose  or  other 
skiu,  there  were  suspended  about  a  hundred  bladders  taken  from 
animals  killed  by  arrows  only.  On  these  bladders  are  painted  vari- 
ous fantastic  figures.  At  one  end  of  the  trap  hangs  an  owl  with  a 
man's  head  and  a  gull  carved  from  wood  ;  at  the  other  end  are  two 
partridges.  By  means  of  threads  running  to  the  crop-beam  these 
images  are  made  to  move  in  imitation  of  life.  Below  the  bladders 
is  placed  a  stick  six  feet  in  height,  bound  about  with  straw.  After 
dancing  in  front  of  the  bladders  a  native  takes  from  the  stick  a  small 
wisp  of  straw,  and  lighting  it,  passes  it  under  the  bladders  and  birds 
so  that  the  smoke  rises  around  them.  He  then  takes  the  stick  and 
straw  outside.  This  custom  of  '  drowning  little  bladders  in  the  sea ' 
is  in  honor  of  the  sea-spirit  called  'Ug-iak ;'  but  I  cannot  discover," 
says  Lieutenant  Zagoskin,  "  how  the  custom  originated,  or  why  they 
use  bladders  from  animals  killed  by  arrows  in  preference  to  those 
killed  by  other  means.  To  all  questions  upon  the  subject  the  na- 
tives answered  :  '  It  is  a  custom  which  we  took  from  our  fathers  and 
our  grandfathers.'  It  seems  to  be  of  great  antiquity,  as  the  natives 
can  give  no  information  as  to  its  origin  or  the  reasons  for  its  adop- 
tion. *  Before  these  bladders  they  dance  all  day  in  their  holiday 
dress,  which  consists  of  light  parka,  warm  boots,  and  short  under- 
dress  for  the  men  ;  and  parkas,  reindeer-trousers,  colored  in  Innuit 
style,  for  women,  and  ornamented  with  glass  beads  and  rings." 

And  again,  in  this  connection,  the  pleasures  of  a  dog-sled  jour- 
ney overland  to  the  Yukon  are  graphically  narrated  by  the  same 
traveller,  who  resumed  his  trip,  after  spending  the  night  as  above 
related,  on  snow-shoes  and  dog-sleds  laden  with  his  provisions  and 
instruments.  On  the  morning  of  December  9,  1842,  he  struck  the 
Oonalakleet  Kiver  and  started  up  its  frozen  channel.  He  says  : 

"  The  weather  was  at  first  favorable,  but  it  soon  changed,  and  a 
driving  snow-storm  set  in,  blinding  our  eyes  so  that  we  could 
not  distinguish  the  path.  A  blade  of  grass  seventy  feet  distant  had 
the  appearance  of  a  shrub,  and  sloping  valleys  looked  like  lakes 
with  high  banks,  the  illusion  vanishing  upon  nearer  approach. 

*  It  is  the  same  reply  that  is  honestly  given  to  any  query  made  as  to  the 
reason  of  almost  every  one  of  these  Innuit  mummeries.  Too  many  attempts 
have  been  made  to  attach  serious  meaning  to  such  idle  ceremonies. 


424  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

On  December  9th,  at  midnight,  a  terrible  snow-storm  began,  and 
in  the  short  space  of  ten  minutes  covered  men,  dogs,  and  sledges, 
forming  a  perfect  hill  above  them.  We  sat  at  the  foot  of  a  hill, 
with  the  wind  from  the  opposite  side,  and  our  feet  drawn  under  us 
to  prevent  them  from  freezing,  and  covered  with  our  parkas.  When 
we  were  covered  by  the  snow,  we  made  holes  with  sticks  through  to 
the  open  air.  In  a  short  time  the  warmth  of  the  breath  and  per- 
spiration melted  the  snow  so  that  a  man-like  cave  was  formed  about 
each  individual.  In  these  circumstances  our  travellers  passed  five 
hours,  calling  to  one  another  at  intervals  to  keep  awake,  it  being 
certain  death  to  sleep  in  that  intense  cold.  If  we  had  been  on  the 
other  side  of  the  hill,  exposed  to  the  full  fury  of  the  wind,  we  would 
have  been  buried  in  the  snow  and  suffocated." 

Such  are  the  experiences  of  all  travelling  traders  on  the  Yukon, 
who  encounter  these  wintry  "poorgas"  in  the  pursuit  of  their  call- 
ing every  year  of  their  lives  spent  in  that  great  Alaskan  moorland. 
Familiarity  with  this  subject  never  breeds  contempt  for  it  in  the 
minds  of  those  hardy  men — that  pain  and  privation  to  which  these 
characteristic  storms  subject  all  human  beings  who  are  caught  and 
chained  on  a  tundra,  or  in  the  mountains,  by  their  wild  rushing 
and  bitterly  cold  breath,  is  never  forgotten. 

On  the  shores  of  Norton's  Sound  are  many  low  clayey  bluffs, 
which,  as  they  are  annually  undermined  by  the  surf  and  chiselled  by 
frost,  fall  in  heavy  crumbled  masses  upon  the  beach.  This  exposes 
their  long-concealed  deposit  of  the  tusks  and  bones  of  those  pre- 
glacial  elephants,  the  mammoth  and  the  mastodon.  Such  fossil  ivory 
has  been  used  by  all  Innuits  from  time  immemorial  in  making 
their  sleds  and  in  tipping  their  spears,  lances,  and  arrows. 

A  party  of  Americans  spent  the  summer  of  1881  exploring  the 
country  at  the  head  of  that  deep  indentation  in  the  north  shore  of 
Norton's  Sound  called  Golovin  Bay.  They  were  miners,  and  en- 
gaged in  locating  the  sources  from  which  the  Innuits  had  been 
bringing  large  masses  of  lead-ore  with  a  micaceous  sparkle.  The 
hope  of  a  silver-mine  had  allured  these  hardy  prospectors,  who  had 
not  reckoned,  however,  on  what  they  would  have  to  face  during  the 
long  winter,  on  the  ice  that  was  always  left  in  the  soil.  Still,  in  the 
summer  this  bay  of  Golovin  is  an  attractive  anchorage — the  most 
agreeable  landscape  presented  anywhere  on  our  Arctic  coast.  Sev- 
eral rivers  empty  into  it,  and  on  the  slopes  of  the  uplands  of  the 
northwest  side  is  a  growth  of  white  pines  that  reach  a  height  of  fif- 


LONELY   NORTHERN   WASTES.  425 

teen  or  twenty  feet  These  small  rounded  conifers,  scattered  in 
clumps  over  the  green  and  russet  tundra,  an  absence  of  under- 
brush, and  the  dark-green  lines  of  stunted  willows  and  birches  that 
fill  the  ravines  on  the  sloping  sides  of  gently  rising  hills,  suggest 
the  parking  of  an  old-country  place  where  the  orchards  are  sepa- 
rated by  hedges. 

The  beaches  everywhere  are  profusely  Uttered  with  drift-logs 
from  the  Yukon,  twenty  to  forty  feet  in  length,  thickly  strewn. 
They  are  pushed  high  above  tides  by  the  ice-floes  in  winter.  What 
the  result  would  be  of  failure  to  gain  that  abundant  supply  of  fuel, 
now  so  easy  of  attainment,  upon  the  natives  of  this  entire  region,  is 
not  difficult  to  determine.  As  they  live  to-day  they  are  steadily, 
rapidly  diminishing  in  number.  The  whalemen  have  substantially 
exterminated  their  chief  sources  of  life — the  whale  and  the  walrus. 
Seals  are  not  as  abundant  as  on  the  Greenland  coasts,  and  if,  in 
addition  to  their  extra  labor  of  securing  food-supply,  they  were 
obliged  to  do  without  wood,  a  practical  depopulation  of  the  Alas- 
kan coast  of  Bering  Straits  and  the  Arctic  Ocean  would  be  effected 
soon. 

As  the  trader  shapes  his  course  from  St.  Michael's  for  Port 
Clarence  and  Kotzebue  Sound,  his  little  vessel  skirts  the  low  north 
shore  of  Norton's  Sound  very  closely.  He  may  stop  for  an  hour  or 
two,  if  the  weather  permits,  at  Sledge  Islet,  standing  "off  and 
on  "  while  the  Innuits  come  out  to  the  schooner  in  their  skin  "  oomi- 
aks"  or  bidarrahs.  This  barren  rock  was  so  named  by  Captain 
Cook,  who,  when  he  landed  on  it,  found  nothing  but  a  native's 
hand-sled.  Its  inhabitants  were  all  sojourning  on  the  mainland, 
berrying.  It  is  only  about  a  mile  in  its  greatest  length,  less  than 
half  a  mile  wide,  and  raised  almost  perpendicularly  from  the  sea  to 
a  height  of  five  or  six  hundred  feet.  When  the  modicum  of  walrus- 
oil  and  ivory  which  these  natives  have  to  barter  has  been  hoisted 
on  board,  the  schooner  shapes  her  course  for  another  islet — the 
curious  "  Ookivok,"  or  King's  Island — which  stands,  a  mere  rock 
as  it  were,  in  the  flood  that  sweeps  through  Bering  Straits.  It  is 
rugged,  and  strewn  with  immense  quantities  of  basaltic  fragments, 
scoriae,  and  rises  so  precipitately  from  the  sea  tnat  no  place  for  a 
beach-landing  can  be  found. 

Here  on  the  south  side,  clinging  like  nests  of  barn-swallows,  are 
the  summer  houses  of  the  Ookivok  walrus-hunters.  They  are  from 
fifty  to  one  hundred  feet  above  the  brawling  surf  that  breaks  in- 


426 


OUR  AECTIC   PROVINCE. 


cessantly  beneath  them,  and  secured  to  the  perpendicular  cliffs  by 
lashings  and  guys  of  walrus-thongs.  The  wooden  poles  thus  fast- 
ened to  the  rocks  are  covered  with  walrus-hides.  On  these  unique 
brackets  those  hardy  Innuits  spend  the  warmer  weather.  Their 
winter  residences  are  mere  holes  excavated  in  the  interstices  and 
fissures  of  the  same  bluff  to  which  their  flimsy  summer  dwell- 
ings are  attached,  the  entrances  to  most  of  them  being  directly  un- 
der the  frail  platforms  upon  which  these  Mahlemoot  families  are 
perched  with  all  of  their  rude  household  belongings.  The  naked- 
ness of  the  island  is  so  great  as  to  forbid  life  to  even  a  spear  of 
grass  or  moss — nothing  but  close,  leathery  lichens,  that  grow  so 
tightly  to  its  weathered  rocks  that  they  appear  to  be  part  and  par- 


Ookivok. 

eel  of  the  splintered  basaltic  cubes  or  olivine  bluffs  themselves.  A 
more  uninviting  spot  for  human  habitation  could  not  be  found  in 
all  the  savage  solitudes  of  the  north.  But  the  Innuit  is  here,  not 
for  the  pleasure  of  location  ;  he  is  here  for  that  command  which 
this  station  gives  him  over  all  walrus-herds  floating  up  and  down 
on  the  ice-floes  of  Bering  Sea  at  the  sport  of  varying  moods  of  wind 
and  current. 

From  the  rugged  crests  of  King's  Island  the  natives  can  appre- 
hend drifting  sea-horses  as  they  sleep  heavily  on  broad  ice-cakes, 
and  make  ample  preparation  for  their  capture.  The  violence  of  the 
wind  is  so  great  that  the  small,  flat  summit  of  this  islet  cannot  be 
utilized  as  a  place  of  residence — the  winds  that  howl  over  and 
around  its  rock-strewn  head  would  hurl  the  Innuits,  bag  and  bag- 
gage, into  those  angry  waves  which  thunder  incessantly  below. 


LONELY   NORTHERN    WASTES.  427 

Long  experience  at  plunging  through  surf  with  their  handsomely 
made  kayaks,  and  returning  to  land  on  these  perilous  shores  of  King's 
Island,  has  made  the  Ookivok  people  the  boldest  and  the  best  water- 
men in  the  north.  Their  little  skin  canoes  are  of  the  finest  con- 
struction, and  their  surplus  time  is  largely  passed  in  carving  walrus- 
ivory  into  all  fashions  of  rude  design  for  barter  in  the  summer, 
when  the  ice  shall  disappear  and  the  sails  of  whaling-ships  and  fur- 
trading  schooners  challenge  their  attention  in  the  offing. 

What  a  winter  these  people  must  witness !  What  a  succession 
of  furious  storms  and  snow-laden  gales!  When  their  summer 
comes  it  brings  but  little  sunlight  to  their  rocky  retreat;  for, 
standing,  as  it  does,  in  the  full  sweep  of  that  warmer  flood  which 
flows  up  from  the  Japanese  coast  into  the  Arctic,  cold,  chilly  fogs 
and  obstinate  clouds  envelope  them  most  of  the  time.  But  sympa- 
thy is  utterly  wasted ;  were  they  to  be  transported  to  California, 
and  surrounded  with  all  the  needs  of  a  creature  existence,  they 
would  soon  entreat,  beg,  implore  us  to  return  them  to  the  inhospit- 
able rock  from  which  they  were  taken.  The  whalers  have,  at  vari- 
ous intervals  during  the  last  twenty  years,  carried  Innuits  down  to 
spend  the  winter  with  them  at  the  Sandwich  Islands,  under  an 
idea  that  these  people  would  be  delighted  with  the  soft,  warm  cli- 
mate there,  and  such  fruits  and  flowers,  and  be  grateful  for  the  trip. 
But  in  no  instance  did  an  individual  of  this  hyperborean  race  fail 
to  sigh  for  his  home  in  Bering  Sea,  or  the  Arctic  Ocean,  soon  after 
landing  at  Hawaii.  Those  Innuits  who  were  without  kith  or  kin 
became  just  as  homesick  and  forlorn  as  any  natives  did  who  had 
relatives  behind  awaiting  their  return. 

A  few  hours'  sailing,  with  a  free  wind,  to  the  north  from  King's 
Island,  brings  you  into  full  view  of  a  bold  headland  at  the  en- 
trance to  Port  Clarence.  Cape  York  is  a  noted  landmark  in  this 
well-travelled  highway  to  the  Arctic  Ocean — well  travelled  by  the 
whaling  fleets  of  the  whole  world  until  recently  ;  now,  an  elimina- 
tion of  cetacean  life  from  these  waters  has  caused  their  substantial 
abandonment  by  those  vessels,  and  no  others  come,  save  a  tradin^- 
schooner  ever  and  anon  at  wide  intervals.  A  roomy  harbor,  shel- 
tered from  the  south  by  a  long  pier  of  alluvium,  is  Port  Clarence. 
Leading  beyond  it  is  an  immense  inner  basin,  walled  in  all  about 
by  steep  slate  precipices :  this  is  Grantley  Harbor.  High  hopes  and 
great  expectations  were  centred  here  in  1865-66,  by  the  location  of 
that  short  cable-end  which,  under-running  Bering  Straits,  was  to 


428  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

unite  an  overland  telegraph  wire  from  St.  Petersburg  with  that  one 
we  were  to  build,  in  the  same  fashion,  from  Portland,  Ore.,  thus 
to  span  the  Old  and  New  Worlds  by  this  short  submarine  link. 
Naturally,  then,  it  made  this  point  of  its  beginning  a  most  interest- 
ing locality.  In  obedience  to  an  order  of  a  few  wealthy,  energetic 
capitalists,  who  did  not  then  believe  in  the  practicability  of  the  At- 
lantic cable,  many  stately  ships,  freighted  with  men  and  goods,  left 
San  Francisco  in  the  summer  of  1865,  and,  again,  in  the  succeeding 
season  of  1866,  for  divers  points  in  Alaska  and  Siberia.  These  men 
were  to  build  the  line  overland.  They  were  landed  at  St.  Michael's 
and  at  Port  Clarence,  and  at  several  harbors  on  the  Asiatic  coast. 
They  had  fairly  got  to  work,  when,  late  in  1866,  the  success  of  the 
submarine  cable  between  Newfoundland  and  Ireland  was  assured. 
That  success  compelled  an  abandonment  of  the  Collins  Overland 
Telegraph,  and  these  men  were  consequently  recalled,  and  sailed 
back  to  California  in  those  handsome  vessels  of  the  telegraph  fleet. 
How  the  Innuits  of  Port  Clarence  marvelled  when  these  smart, 
richly  dressed  men  disembarked,  and  put  up  houses  in  which  to 
store  their  treasures  of  food  and  telegraph  materials,  as  well  as  to 
actually  live  in — to  stay  there  with  them,  in  their  own  rude  country, 
where  no  such  thing  had  ever  been  even  dreamed  of  before.  After 
the  ships  had  squared  their  yards  and  filled  away,  without  calling 
the  Americans  on  board,  then  the  Mahlemoot  heart  was  filled  with 
unknown  and  strange  emotions  of  joy  and  curiosity — both  of  these 
passions  were  fully  satisfied  ere  the  white  men  left  Grantley  Harbor. 
With  Cape  York  just  astern,  you  pass  under  the  lee  of  those 
sheer  and  lofty  walls  of  that  shoulder  to  our  continent,  Cape  Prince 
of  Wales.  Its  bold  front  stands  in  full  but  silent  recognition  of  an 
Asiatic  coast  westward,  just  thirty-six  miles  away,  over  the  shallow 
flood  of  Bering  Straits.  What  changes  in  a  great  northland  and 
seas  would  have  been  wrought  had  a  tithe  of  such  volcanic  energy 
which  raised  up  the  Aleutian  archipelago  been  only  exerted  here  in 
throwing  a  basaltic  dike  across  from  continent  to  continent  !  Had 
the  upheaval  and  power  that  elevated  the  large  island  of  Oonimak 
alone  been  focused  here,  we  should  have  no  division  of  the  Old 
World  and  the  New.  That  ocean-river  which  flows  steadily  into 
the  icy  wastes  of  a  known  and  unknown  polar  basin  above  Alaska 
and  Siberia  would  not  now  give  that  life  which  it  so  freely  grants 
both  animals  and  vegetables  in  the  wide  reach  of  the  North  Pacific. 
A  dam  of  adamantine  rock  or  basalt  across  the  Straits  of  Bering 


LONELY  NORTHERN    WASTES.  429 

would  cause  a  startling  revision  of  all  the  natural  order  of  life  in 
Bering  Sea  and  our  Arctic  Ocean. 

Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  which  forms  the  extreme  narrowing  of 
Bering  Straits,  is  a  high,  rugged  promontory,  with  walls  on  the 
south  side  that  are  abrupt  precipices  of  a  full  thousand  feet,  while 
the  uplands  rise,  culminating  in  a  snowy  crown  that  is  twenty-five 
hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Deep  gulches  seam  these 
vertical  walls,  and  are  the  paths  of  numerous  tiny  rivulets  that 
trickle  and  run  in  cascades  down  from  the  spongy  moorlands  above. 
When,  however,  you  stand  in  to  the  straits,  homeward  bound  from 
the  Arctic  Ocean,  this  cape  on  that  side  presents  a  wholly  different 
outline.  It  slopes  up  gradually  from  the  beaches,  and  presents  the 
appearance  of  a  tundra  gently  rising  to  a  small  ridge-like  summit. 
This  lowland  on  the  north  side  is  projected  under  the  sea  for  a  dis- 
tance of  over  eight  miles  in  a  northerly  direction,  making  an  ex- 
ceedingly dangerous  shoal,  and  justly  dreaded  by  the  mariner. 

The  Siberian  side  and  opposite  headland  is  the  bold  and  lofty 
East  Cape,  and  is  connected  with  the  mainland  by  a  low  neck  of 
rolling  tundra,  which  is  characteristic  of  Cape  Prince  of  Wales 
also.  Both  of  these  outposts  of  two  mighty  continents  present,  at 
a  small  distance,  the  resemblance  of  islands. 

On  June  20th,  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight  years  ago  (1648), 
Simeon  Deschnev,  a  Cossack  chief  trader,  sailed  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Siberian  river  Kolyma,  standing  to  the  eastward,  where  he  in- 
tended to  cruise  until  the  country  of  those  Chookchie  natives,  who 
had  ivory  for  trade,  should  be  reached.  His  party  sailed  in  three 
small  "  ketches,"  which  were  rude  wooden  shallops,  decked  over, 
about  thirty  feet  long  and  twelve  in  beam,  drawing  but  little  wa- 
ter. They  pushed  on  and  on  in  that  region  to  the  eastward,  from 
which  direction  the  nomadic  natives  of  the  Kolyma  had  always  re- 
turned laden  with  walrus-ivory.  Fields  of  ice  retarded  them  ;  no 
populous  trading-villages  rewarded  their  scrutiny  of  the  rugged 
coast  as  they  advanced.  The  known  waters  behind  them  closed  up 
with  floes,  so  returning  was  impossible  ;  while  the  unknown  waters 
ahead  were  open  and  invited  exploration.  In  this  manner,  hug- 
ging the  coast,  Deschnev  and  his  companions  sailed  through  the 
straits,  landing  once  there  in  September.  He  called  it  an  "  isthmus," 
and  described  the  appearance  of  the  Diomede  Islands,  which  he 
plainly  saw  from  the  shore.  Although  no  mention  is  made  by  any 
one  of  this  party  of  having  seen  the  American  continent,  yet  it  must 


430 


OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 


have  been  observed  by  them,  for  the  bold  headland  of  Cape  Prince 
of  Wales  can  be  easily  descried  on  any  clear  day  from  the  Asiatic 
side.  Deschnev's  vogage  had  been  quite  forgotten  until  Mtiller,  in 
hunting  over  old  records  in  1764,  found  the  narrative  then,  and  at 
once  published  it  in  the  "Morskoi  Sbornik." 

A  long  interregnum  elapsed  between  the  hardy  voyage  of  Sim- 
eon Deschnev  and  the  next  or  second  passage  of  the  straits  by  the 
keel  of  a  white  man's  vessel.  Not  until  August,  1728,  did  Bering 
sail  through  here.  He  went  only  a  short  distance  above,  into  the 
Arctic  Ocean,  and  returned  without  giving  any  sign  thereafter  of 
the  importance  of  the  pass  or  its  nature,  believing,  most  likely, 
that  what  land  he  saw  on  the  eastern  side  was  a  mere  island  and 
not  a  great  American  continent.  But  that  intrepid  navigator,  Cap- 


The  Diomedes. 

"  Fairway  Rock."        "  Ignalook"  (America).  "Noornabook  *'  (Asia). 

[  Viewed  from  the  Arctic  Ocean ;  looking  S.S.  \V,  7  m.] 

tain  Cook,  who  comes  third  in  this  early  initiation  of  our  race, 
made  no  mistake  :  he  fully  realized  that  the  division  of  two  hemi- 
spheres was  here  effected,  and  so  declared  the  fact,  and  then  gave 
to  these  straits,  in  a  most  chivalric  manner,  the  name  of  Bering, 
August,  1778. 

Midway,  stepping-stones  as  it  were,  across  those  straits  are  the 
Diomedes,  two  barren,  rocky  islets  and  a  sheer  rock.  The  largest  and 
the  most  western  is  about  three  miles  long  and  one  in  width ;  it  is 
seven  or  eight  hundred  feet  in  abrupt  elevation  from  the  water,  and 
the  line  of  division  between  the  Siberian  possessions  and  our  own 
just  takes  it  in.  The  sister  island  is  somewhat  smaller,  less  than 
half  as  large,  but  it  is  as  bold  and  sheer  in  its  rocky  elevation, 
leaving  a  channel-width  of  two  miles  only  in  between.  The  first 
is  named  Ratmanov,  or  Noornabook  ;  the  second,  Kroozenstern,  or 


LONELY   NORTHERN   WASTES.  431 

Ignalook  ;  while  that  high  isolated  hay-cock  mass,  about  seven  miles 
south  of  Kroozenstero,  is  called  Fairway  Rock.  Bering  Straits  has 
an  average  depth  of  only  twenty-six  fathoms,  with  a  hard,  regular 
bottom  of  sand,  gravel,  and  silt. 

This  gateway  to  the  Arctic  Ocean  is  closed  by  ice-floes  usually 
by  the  middle  or  end  of  October  every  year,  and  opened  again  in 
the  following  season  by  May  25th  or  June  1st,  but  the  ice-fields 
do  not  allow  much  room  for  navigation  north  until  the  middle  or 
end  of  June,  sometimes  not  until  the  month  of  July  has  been  well 


On  that  low,  northern  tundra  slope  of  Cape  Prince  of  Wales  is 
the  largest  Innuit  village  in  the  Alaskan  northland.  Four  hundred 
souls  live  there  in  a  settlement  which  they  style  Kingigahmoot,  and 
they  bear  unmistakable  evidence  of  the  vicious  and  degrading  in- 
fluence which  evil  whalers  and  rum-traders  have  exerted.  We  are 
struck  by  their  saucy  flippancy,  their  restless,  meddlesome,  and  im- 
pertinent bearing.  It  is  because  these  people  have  been  for  a  great 
many  years  thoroughly  familiarized  with  and  degraded  by  all  the 
tricks  and  petty  treacheries  of  dishonest  and  disreputable  white 
men.  They  do  not  draw  a  line  in  favor  of  any  decency  in  our  race 
to-day,  and  hence  their  disagreeable  manner.  Otherwise,  beyond 
shaving  the  crowns  of  their  heads,  they  do  not  differ  from  the 
Innuits  whom  we  have  met  heretofore.  They  are  seamen  in  the 
full  sense  of  the  word — hardy,  reckless  navigators  who  boldly 
launch  themselves  into  stormy  waters  and  cross  from  land  to  land 
in  tempest  and  in  fogs,  depending  solely  upon  the  frail  support  of 
their  walrus-skin  baidars,  or  oomiaks.  These  are  very  neatly  made, 
however,  the  covering  of  seal-  and  walrus-hides  being  stretched  and 
sewed  tightly  over  wooden  frames  that  are  lashed  at  the  joints  with 
sinew  and  whalebone-thongs.  They  hoist  a  square  sail  of  deer- 
skins or  cotton  drilling,  and  run  before  the  wind  in  heavy  gales  ;  or 
they  employ  paddles  and  oars,  and  urge  their  craft  against  head- 
winds and  perverse  currents.  Their  poverty  is  the  only  redemption 
which  they  have  had  from  absolute  destruction  ;  for  were  they  pos- 
sessed of  furs  that  would  encourage  the  regular  visits  of  traders, 
they  would,  with  their  disposition  to  debauchery,  have  been  utterly 
exterminated  long  before  this  time.  But  they  are  poor,  very  poor, 
having  nothing  to  tempt  the  cupidity  of  white  traders — nothing  but 
small  stores  of  walrus-oil  and  teeth,  and  a  few  red  and  white  foxes, 
perhaps.  Therefore  our  people  never  stop  long  near  them,  just 


432  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

laying  the  vessel's  sails  aback  for  a  few  minutes,  or  an  hour,  while 
the  dusky  paddling  crews  of  the  oomiaks  surrounding  the  schooner 
exhibit  their  slim  stocks  of  oil  and  ivory. 

These  northern  Innuits  are  not  known  anywhere  to  have  a  vil- 
lage located  far  back  from  the  sea  save  at  three  places,  where,  on  the 
Selawik,  the  Killiamoot,  and  the  Kooak  Rivers,  are  settlements  of 
a  few  people  who  are  at  least  fifty  and  one  or  two  hundred  miles 
inland  ;  but  they .  are  the  exceptions  only  to  their  rule  of  living. 
Some  thirty-five  villages  of  these  hyperborean  Innuits  of  Alaska 
are  scattered  along  the  coast  between  St.  Michael's  and  Point  Bar- 
row ;  they  possess  an  aggregate  (estimated)  inhabitation  of  three 
thousand  men,  women,  and  children.  The  Diomede  and  Prince  of 
Wales  natives  are  the  most  active  middlemen  or  commission  mer- 
chants among  their  people ;  they  conduct  all  the  trade  between 
the  Asiatic  Chookchie  savages  and  the  American  Innuits,  chiefly 
with  those  of  Kotzebue  Sound.  Before  a  wholesale  destruction 
by  our  people,  in  1849-57,  of  the  whales  that  once  were  so  abun- 
dant in  these  waters,  the  life  of  those  natives  was  a  comparatively 
easy  struggle  for  existence,  and  they  were  far  more  numerous  then 
than  they  are  to-day  ;  but  a  fleet  of  four  and  five  hundred  whaling- 
ships,  manned  by  the  hardiest  men  of  all  nations,  literally  swept  that 
cetacean  life  from  the  North  Pacific  and  Bering  Sea,  and  drove  it  so 
far  into  the  Arctic  Ocean  that  its  remnant,  which  is  still  there,  is 
practically  safe  and  beyond  human  reach. 

As  you  leave  the  Straits  of  Bering  behind,  your  little  vessel  cuts 
the  cold,  green  waves  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  rapidly,  especially  if  under 
the  pressure  of  a  warm  southwester  which  funnels  up  stiffly  through 
the  pass.  You  find  nothing  to  catch  your  eye  in  all  that  long  reach 
from  Cape  Prince  of  Wales  to  the  entrance  of  Kotzebue  Sound, 
which  is  an  objective  point  of  all  the  traders  who  come  into  the 
Arctic.  Here  is  the  last  safe  Alaskan  harbor  for  a  sea-going  vessel 
as  we  go  north.  It  is  a  big  one  ;  and  it  is  a  famous  place  for  a 
geologist  and  Innuits  alike.  To  the  latter  it  is  of  especial  signifi- 
cance, since  the  small  rivers  which  empty  there  mark  an  extreme 
northern  limit  of  salmon-running  in  America. 

The  shores  which  bound  this  large  gulf  rise  as  perpendicular 
bluffs,  either  directly  from  the  water  or  from  a  shelving  beach.  In 
some  places  the  land  is  remarkably  low  (as  it  always  is  when  bor- 
dering the  coast),  and  only  so  much  raised  above  tide-level  as  to 
render  the  idea  probable  that  it  is  of  an  alluvial  formation,  the  re- 


LONELY   NORTHERN    WASTES.  433 

suit  of  accumulated  mud  and  sand,  brought  down  in  former  times 
by  the  melting  and  running  of  large  glacial  rivers,  and  then  thrown 
up  later  by  recent  ice-floes  of  the  Arctic  Sea.  The  cliffs  are,  in  part, 
abrupt  and  rocky  ;  others  are  made  up  of  falling  masses  of  mud, 
sand,  and  ice.  The  rocky  cliffs  are  dominant  on  the  western  and 
southern  shores,  while  the  diluvial  bluff's  and  flats  complete  that 
remaining  east  and  northeast  circuit  of  the  sound.  Lowlands  bor- 
der a  major  portion  of  the  Bay  of  Good  Hope,  and  form  the  land 
of  Cape  Espenberg  and  contiguous  country. 

A  most  striking  natural  feature  of  this  final  rendezvous  of  the 
salmon-loving  Innuits  is  the  Peninsula  of  Choris,  which  divides  the 
inner  waters  of  the  Bay  of  Escholtz  from  those  of  Good  Hope.  It 
is  a  narrow,  variously  indented  tongue ;  its  northern  end  is  sepa- 
rated from  the  southern,  and  connected  by  a  slender  neck  of  very 
low  land.  This  lower  point  assumes  the  shape  of  a  round  and  some- 
what conical  eminence,  surmounted  by  a  flat,  hut-like  peak,  the  sides 
of  which  rise  a  few  feet  perpendicularly  above  a  surrounding  sur- 
face, as  though  raised  artificially  by  masonry.  The  whole  height  is 
about  six  hundred  feet  above  sea-level.  Both  sides  of  that  quaint 
headland  terminate  in  rocky  cliff's  which,  toward  the  west,  are  one 
hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  feet  high,  stratified,  unbroken, 
and  dipping  to  the  west  at  an  angle  of  thirty  degrees.  They  are 
composed  of  micaceous  slate,  with  no  included  minerals.  This  slate 
is  of  a  greenish  hue,  with  a  very  considerable  predominance  of  mica. 
In  it  are  garnets,  veins  of  feldspar  enclosing  crystals  of  schorl,  and 
fissures  filled  with  quartz.  At  one  point,  nearly  midway  between 
the  southern  end  of  this  peninsula  and  its  low  neck,  is  a  singular 
bed  of  pure  milk-white  quartz,  that  marks  its  locality  from  a  long 
distance  by  the  masses  of  large  white  blocks  which  have  fallen  down 
by  natural  processes  of  cleavage  and  frost-chiselling,  and  these  re- 
main unaltered  in  their  snowy  color  in  spite  of  the  corroding  action 
of  time  and  weather.  Again,  still  nearer  the  neck,  a  narrow  bed  of 
limestone  forms  a  distinct  protrusion  above  some  mica-schist,  about 
thirty  feet  in  length  and  five  in  depth.  It  reappears  in  such 
strength,  however,  at  the  southern  end  of  the  peninsula,  that  it 
forms  most  of  the  rock  exposed,  and  produces  four  perpendicular 
and  contiguous  promontories,  separated  from  each  other  by  small, 
receding  bays,  that  present  curious  walls  striped  a  white  and  blue 
tint  in  beautifully  blended  stratification,  most  unique  and  attractive 
to  the  eye.  The  upper  part  of  this  limestone  contains  iron  pyrites, 


434  CUE  AKCTIC    PROVINCE. 

and  has  cavities  ^filled  with  chlorite.  The  lower  strata  are  more 
abundantly  mixed  with  micaceous  schistus,  containing  compact 
actynolite,  and  flat  prisms  of  a  glassy  shade  of  it,  crystals  of  tour- 
maline, and  those  various  concretions  of  iron  pyrites.  The  quartz 
is,  in  some  places,  colored  a  real  topaz  tint.  Such,  in  brief,  is  a  faint 
description  of  those  geological  attractions  which  the  Arctic  rocks  of 
Kotzebue  Sound  present  to  a  student. 

The  country  everywhere,  that  borders  the  Arctic  Ocean  and  this 
sound,  is  low.  The  land  rises  by  faint  and  gradual  slopes ;  it  is 
covered  with  clay  soils  and  the  characteristic  vegetation  of  a  tun- 
dra. The  many  low,  projecting  points  of  Kotzebue  Sound  are 
thickly  strewn  with  large  and  smaller  masses  of  vesicular  and  of 
compact  lava,  containing  olivine.  Some  of  these  blocks  extend  into 
the  sea ;  others  are  embedded  in  the  sandy  soil  of  the  beach  ;  but 
many  are  insulated  and  awash  above  the  surf.  They  are  honey- 
combed with  empty  cavities.  The  sands  of  this  Arctic  Ocean  beach 
partake  of  the  black  and  volcanic  nature  of  those  blocks.  These 
large  and  numerous  erratic  blocks  of  basalt,  collected  chiefly  on 
such  jutting  points,  must  have  been  conveyed  there  by  ice-sheets 
from  a  very  considerable  distance,  for  no  volcanic  formation  is  to  be 
seen  in  their  vicinity. 

A  suggestive  wreck  lies  half  buried  in  the  sand  and  drift  of  the 
north  shore  of  Choris  Peninsula — it  is  the  scant  and  weathered 
remnants  of  a  large  whaling-bark,  which  was  run  ashore  here  and 
burned.  Its  own  crew  did  so  to  prevent  its  capture  by  the  Shenan- 
doah — that  cruiser  which,  during  our  civil  war,  swooped  down  upon 
our  Asio-Alaskan  whaling-fleet,  as  a  fish-hawk  drops  upon  a  flock 
of  startled  gulls.  Again,  on  the  south  side  of  Good  Hope  Bay,  in 
this  same  remarkable  sound  of  Kotzebue,  is  a  bluff  of  solid  blue 
clay,  from  the  face  of  which  the  frost-king  annually  strikes  large 
masses.  The  weathered  debris  of  these  fallen  sections  reveal  many 
fine  specimens  of  well-preserved  remains  of  huge  pachyderms — 
mammoths — and  their  finding  has  given  a  fit  name  of  "Elephant 
Point "  to  the  place. 

Across  that  peninsula,  which  Choris  Point  and  its  comical  little 
tender  of  Chamisso  Islet  project  from,  lies  the  long  and  narrow  est- 
uary of  Hotham  Inlet,  where  all  Innuits,  from  Icy  Cape  to  the  far 
north  and  Bering  Straits  in  the  south,  annually  repair  for  salmon- 
fishing  in  August.  Into  the  mouths  of  a  half-dozen  small  streams 
which  empty  there,  and  that  large  one,  of  Kooak  River,  the  hump- 


LONELY    NORTHERN   WASTES.  435 

backed  salmon  runs,  for  a  brief  period,  in  great  numbers  :  then  the 
harvest  of  the  Eskimo  is  at  hand.  Nowhere  else  above  this  point 
can  a  salmon  ever  be  taken,  and  as  it  is  the  last  chance  of  these 
natives,  they  improve  it.  Flocks  of  fat  ducks  and  geese  hover  over 
and  rest  upon  the  smooth,  shallow  waters  of  this  inlet,  alternately 
feeding  there  and  then  alighting  upon  the  tundra  where  crow- 
berries  and  insects  abound.  Our  whalers  have  taught  these  Innuits 
how  to  make  and  use  gill-nets,  with  which  they  now  catch  their  fish 
almost  exclusively ;  and  not  unwisely  have  those  natives  made  the 
change,  for  they  have  not  got  any  slender  willow  brush  and  alder- 
saplings  which  their  brethren  use  so  effectually  in  making  rude 
traps  on  the  Yukon,  Kuskokvim,  and  Nooshagak  Rivers.  They  also 
stretch  these  gill-nets  over  certain  narrow  places,  from  shore  to 
shore,  of  lagoons  and  lakes,  where  flocks  of  water-fowl  are  wont  to 
fly  (in  early  morning  and  late  in  the  evening),  and  succeed  in  capt- 
uring a  great  many  luckless  birds  by  this  simple  method. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 
MORSE   AND   MAHLEMOOT. 

The  Monotonous  Desolation  of  the  Alaskan  Arctic  Coast. — Dreary  Expanse  of 
Low  Moorlands. — Diversified  by  Saddle-backed  Hills  of  Gray  and  Bronze 
Tints. — The  Coal  of  Cape  Beaufort  in  the  Arctic. — A  Narrow  Vein. — 
Pure  Carboniferous  Formation. — Doubtful  if  these  Alaskan  "  Black  Dia- 
monds "  can  be  Successfully  Used. — Icy  Cape,  a  Sand-  and  Gravel-spit. — 
Remarkable  Land-locked  Lagoons  on  the  Beach. — The  Arctic  Innuits. — 
Point  Barrow,  Our  Extreme  Northern  Land,  a  Low  Gravel-spit. — The  But- 
tercup and  the  Dandelion  Bloom  here,  however,  as  at  Home. — Back  to 
Bering  Sea. — The  Interesting  Island  and  Natives  of  St.  Lawrence. — The 
Sea-horse. — Its  Uncouth  Form  and  Clumsy  Life. — Its  Huge  Bulk  and  Impo- 
tency  on  Land. — Lives  entirely  by  Clam-digging. — Rank  Flavor  of  its  Flesh. 
— The  Walrus  is  to  the  Innuit  just  as  the  Cocoa-palm  is  to  the  South  Sea 
Islander. — Hunting  the  Morse. — The  Jagged,  Straggling  Island  of  St. 
Matthew. — The  Polar  Bears' Carnival. — Hundreds  of  them  here. — Their 
Fear  of  Man. — "  Over  the  Hills  and  Far  Away,"  whenever  Approached. — 
Completion  of  the  Alaskan  Circuit. 

AN  Innuit  village  is  in  plain  sight  on  the  low  shores  of  Cape  Krooz- 
enstern,  which  forms  a  northern  pier-head  of  Kotzebue  Sound,  and 
its  inhabitants  greet  your  vessel  as  it  passes  out  and  up  the  coast  with 
the  usual  dress-parade — climbing  upon  the  summits  of  their  winter 
houses,  and  by  running  in  light-hearted  mirth  along  the  beach. 
A  most  dreary  expanse  of  low  moorland  borders  the  coast  as  the  lit- 
tle schooner  reviews  it,  swiftly  heeling  on  her  course  to  the  north. 
Not  until  the  bluffs  of  Cape  Thompson  are  in  sight  does  a  note- 
worthy landmark  occur.  This  is  an  abrupt  headland  capped  by 
carboniferous  limestone  full  of  fossils,  shells,  corals  and  the  like, 
which  are  peculiar  to  that  age.  It  is  also  traversed  by  veins  of  a 
blackish  chert  varying  in  thickness  from  six  inches  to  three  feet  or 
more,  causing  a  decided  network  tracery  to  appear  very  plainly  on 
its  gray-white  face.  Half-way  down  from  the  top,  the  limestone  is 
succeeded  by  blue,  black,  and  gray  argillaceous  shades,  the  colors 
of  which  alternate  in  layers  of  horizontal  strata,  six  or  eight  feet  in 


MORSE   AND   MAHLEMOOT.  437 

thickness,  nearly  down  to  the  base ;  it  is  then  composed  of  black 
carboniferous  shales  alone,  which  abound  in  organic  remains  and 
are  occasionally  interstratified  by  limestone  much  deflected.  This 
contortion  is  so  great  as  to  form  two  regularly  banded  arches.  Sev- 
eral tiny  snow-water  cascades  tumble  down  its  ravines  and  boldly 
plunge  over  the  bluffs,  which  are  about  four  hundred  feet  high  in 
their  greatest  elevation. 

This  chert  is  that  which  the  Eskimo  of  the  entire  Alaskan  arc- 
tic region  (before  the  coming  of  white  men)  used  for  tipping  their 
lance-  and  arrow-heads  when  ivory  was  not  employed.  They,  aided 
with  a  small  piece  of  bone,  were  able  to  "  flake  "  it  off  in  slices  that 
were  easily  reduced  to  the  desired  forms.  They  still  work  a  little 
of  it  up  every  year,  in  a  desultory  or  perfunctory  manner,  however, 
more  for  amusement  than  anything  else,  since  they  have  a  profusion 
of  iron  and  steel  now  in  their  possession.  The  fashion  in  which  they 
chip  it  gives  ample  evidence  of  their  full  understanding  of  a  flat  con- 
choidal  fracture  peculiar  to  flint,  and  of  which  they  take  advantage. 

To  the  northwest  of  Cape  Thompson  the  coast  runs  out  abruptly 
as  a  low  spit,  projected  into  the  Arctic  Ocean  for  a  distance  of 
twenty  miles.  This  is  Port  Hope.  The  beach  everywhere  is  prin- 
cipally formed  of  dark  basaltic  gravel.  To  the  north  of  a  considerable 
stream  not  far  from  this  point,  and  on  a  low  and  diluvial  shore,  is  a 
large  hamlet  of  Innuits,  who  have  covered  the  turfy  thatches  on 
their  winter  houses  with  heavy  blocks  of  angular  clink-atones  picked 
up  from  the  sea-beach.  The  whole  surface  of  the  interior  country 
here  is  raised  several  hundred  feet  above  tide-level,  and  is  diversi- 
fied with  saddle-backed  hills  of  gray  and  bronzed  tints,  separated  by 
wide  valleys  in  which  a  rich  green  summer  verdancy  is  character- 
istic. Here  and  there  conical  eminences  and  perpendicular  shelv- 
ing cliffs  arise  from  a  general  evenness  of  the  whole  landscape. 
These  cliffs  seem  to  be  composed  of  limestones,  while  their  acclivi- 
ties are  of  slate  and  shale. 

As  we  near  Cape  Lisburne  a  jutting  range  of  bluffs,  stratified  in 
bands  of  grayish-brown  and  black,  receive  the  full  wash  of  the  sea, 
and  are  called  Cape  Dyer  ;  but  Cape  Lisburne  is  the  striking  land- 
mark, and  a  most  important  one  for  the  navigator  to  recognize.  It 
is  composed  of  two  remarkable  promontories :  the  southwestern 
one  rises  abruptly  from  the  surf,  is  covered  with  loose  gray  stones, 
divested  of  the  smallest  traces  of  vegetation.  The  northeastern  one 
rises  gradually,  and,  although  but  thinly  clad  with  verdure,  it  forms 


438  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

a  pleasing  and  marked  contrast  with  the  gray  head  of  the  other. 
The  first  is  elevated  from  the  sea  in  distinct  strata,  with  a  south- 
western dip,  and  consists  of  layers  of  impure  chert  in  its  central  and 
most  prominent  projections,  and  of  a  soft,  friable  slate  and  shale  in 
its  worn  and  more  retiring  sides.  The  front  of  the  second  is  rugged 
and  shelving,  with  very  indistinct  bandings  ;  it  is  partly  covered 
with  tundra  vegetable-growths,  and  with  fallen  masses  of  gray  flint. 
Both  points  to  this  double-headed  cape  of  Lisburne  are  easily  acces- 
sible ;  they  are  about  one  thousand  feet  in  height  from  the  shore 
of  the  ocean,  and  both  stretch  their  ridges  away  inland  far  to  the 
southeast. 

The  highly  elevated  country  here  ceases  at  once  to  the  northeast 
of  Cape  Lisburne,  where  the  entire  coast-line,  away  on  and  off  to 
Icy  Cape,  and  beyond  again,  forms  a  deep  and  extensive  bay  skirted 
by  a  dark,  low  beach.  A  gravel-flat  fronts  this  again,  filled  with 
shallow  estuaries  and  lagoons.  The  land  of  the  interior  rises  from 
that  beach  in  a  series  of  low,  earthy  cliffs  and  in  gradual  acclivities. 

The  coal-veins,  which  Beechey  visited  in  1826,  are  about  fifty 
miles  to  the  eastward  of  Lisburne,  embedded  in  a  ridge  some  three 
hundred  feet  high  where  it  juts  into  the  ocean.  This  point  is 
known  as  Cape  Beaufort.  A  narrow  vein  of  pure  carboniferous  coal 
is  exposed  there,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  beach.  "  It 
was  slaty,  but  burned  with  a  bright,  clear  flame  and  rapid  consump- 
tion." Again,  at  a  point  about  midway  between  Beaufort  and  Lis- 
burne, directly  at  the  surf -margin,  the  officers  of  the  United  States 
Revenue  Marine  cutter  Corwin  mined  a  few  tons  of  this  same  coal 
in  1880-81.  But  no  harbor  for  a  coaling  ship  is  near  by  ;  the 
steady  north  and  westerly  winds  of  summer,  which  blow  right  on 
shore  almost  all  of  that  short  time  in  which  a  vessel  can  navigate 
the  Arctic,  make  it  very  doubtful  whether  these  remote  mines  of 
Alaskan  "black  diamonds"  will  ever  be  of  real  economic  value. 

That  sand-  and  shingle-spit  ahead  of  us,  which  the  whalers  have 
named  Icy  Cape  with  perfect  fitness,  is  in  itself  almost  invisible, 
since  it  is  a  mere  continuation  of  the  outer  rim  to  a  remarkable 
lagoon  which  borders  this  coast  from  Cape  Beaufort  to  Wainright 
Inlet,  over  one  hundred  miles  in  length,  and  varying  in  width  from 
five  to  ten  miles,  with  an  average  depth  of  two  fathoms.  It  is 
spanned  by  occasional  sand-bars,  some  of  them  entirely  dry,  so  that 
it  is  not  navigable  except  for  those  small  boats  and  oomiaks  of 
the  natives,  who  haul  these  craft  across  as  they  journey,  thus  safe 


MORSE   AND    MAHLEMOOT. 


439 


and  snug,  up  and  down  a  desolate  coast.  This  lagoon  of  the  Arc- 
tic Ocean  has  several  openings  to  the  sea  itself.  Small  schoon- 
ers can  run  in  and  escape  from  ice-pack  "jams,"  if  they  draw  less 
than  eight  or  ten  feet  of  water.  The  coast-line  of  the  mainland  at 
Icy  Cape  is  a  series  of  low  mud-cliffs,  varying  from  ten  to  fifty  feet 
in  height  above  a  shingly  beach,  which  is  everywhere  composed 
of  fine,  minutely  comminuted,  pebbly  bases  of  granite,  of  chert,  of 
sienite,  and  of  indurated  clay,  the  last  being  a  predominant  form. 

From  this  point  clear  around  to  the  boundary  of  our  Alaskan 
Arctic  coast  at  Point  Demarcation  that  country  presents  the  same 
appearance  which  we  note  here.  It  is  low  and  slightly  rolling,  and 
falls  in  small  cliffs  of  mud  or  sandstone  at  the  sea-shore.  During 


Innuit  Whaling-camp  at  Icy  Cape. 

the  midsummer  season  it  wears  a  liue  of  gray  and  brown,  with  lit- 
tle patches  of  bright  green  where  the  snow  has  melted  early  in 
sunny,  sheltered  spots.  The  lines  of  many  streams,  as  they  course 
in  carrying  off  melting  snows,  are  plainly  marked  over  a  dreary 
tundra  by  the  dark  fringes  of  dwarfed  willows,  birches,  and  alders 
which  only  grow  upon  their  banks. 

All  along  this  cheerless  northern  sea-shore  are  small  and  widely 
scattered  settlements  of  our  Innuits,  who  burrow  in  their  turfy  un- 
derground winter  huts,  and  who  tent  outside  in  summer-time  upon 
these  shingly  gravels  and  clink-stones  of  the  Arctic  coast.  They 
then  live  upon  the  walrus  and  kill  an  occasional  calf-whale.  For 
the  better  apprehension  of  these  animals  they  erect  lookouts  on  the 
beach  by  setting  up  drift-wood  scaffolds,  and  climbing  as  lookouts 


440  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

to  an  elevated  platform  thus  made.  In  the  winter,  when  the  weather 
permits,  they  net  a  ringed  seal  (Phoca  fcetida)  under  the  ice,  make 
short  inland  trips,  where  they  camp  for  weeks  at  a  time  in  rude 
snow-houses,  hunting  reindeer,  which  are  shy  though  abundant, 
and  they  trap  a  few  wolves  and  foxes.  Every  July  and  August 
they  expect  the  visit  of  a  few  whaling-vessels  at  least,  and  they  are 
seldom  disappointed,  for  such  craft  are  compelled  by  ice-floes  to 
hug  this  shore  very  closely,  in  order  to  get  as  far  to  the  eastward 
as  the  whales  are  found  ;  sometimes,  in  spite  of  all  the  wariness  and 
skill  of  our  own  hardy  whalemen,  great  floe-booms,  of  icy  make, 
suddenly  shut  down  on  that  land  so  quickly  from  the  north  as  to 
catch  and  crush  the  staunchest  ships  like  egg-shells  under  foot. 
Then,  indeed,  is  the  sadness  and  the  distress  of  the  white  men 
sharply  contrasted  with  that  great  joy  and  happy  anticipation  of  an 
Innuit  who  feasts  his  eyes  and  gloats  in  fancy  over  the  abandoned 
vessels  as  they  lie  riven  by  ice  upon  those  shallow  strands  of  Icy 
Cape  or  Point  Barrow. 

It  is  more  than  sixty  years  now  since  Captain  Beechey  *  camped 
upon  and  located  Point  Barrow,  our  extreme  jftmit  of  northern 
landed  possession,  and  in  that  time  few  changes,  other  than  depop- 
ulation of  the  natives,  have  taken  place  on  this  coast.  That  same 
village  of  Noowuk,  which  he  graphically  described,  still  stands  there 
on  the  tip  of  a  low  gravel-spit  which  extends  out  from  the  mainland 
twelve  miles  into  the  chill  flood  of  an  Arctic  Ocean.  All  the  land 
at  its  extremity  not  inundated  by  the  sea  in  storms  is  now,  as  it 
was  then,  occupied  by  the  winter  houses  of  the  natives.  Blooming 
here  in  the  short  summer  of  July,  on  those  desolate  moors  adjacent 
to  Point  Barrow,  is  the  same  dandelion  and  buttercup  which  filled 
the  Englishman  then,  as  it  does  us  now,  with  thoughts  of  meadows 
at  home,  and  some  bright  little  poppies  still  nod  their  yellow  heads 
again  to  us,  as  they  did  to  him,  on  this  low  north  end  of  Alaska. 
A  tiny  golden  butterfly  flits  from  flower  to  flower,  and  as  they  fade, 
it,  too,  disappears  over  frost-bitten  swales. 

Big  ice-fields  seldom  ever  fail  to  threaten  the  coast  here,  even 


*  Captain  F.  W.  Beechey  H.  M.  S.  Blossom,  voyage  1825-28,  inclusive. 
The  seasons  of  1826  and  1827  were  passed  in  these  waters.  Murdoch,  who 
passed  the  winters  of  1881-83,  inclusive,  here,  has  given  an  interesting  resume 
of  the  natural  history,  etc. ,  of  the  spot.  Beechey's  account  of  the  people  and 
country  are  confirmed  by  him. 


MORSE  AND   MAHLEMOOT. 


441 


when  they  relax  their  grasp  in  July.  In  a  few  short  weeks,  how- 
ever, they  return  to  stay  for  the  rest  of  the  year  and  best  part  of 
the  next.  Such  brief  intervals  for  navigation  in  the  Arctic  Ocean 
during  every  July  and  August  are  those  which  lure  whaling-ships, 
and  the  dark  lanes  of  open  water  in  white  ice-floes  are  the  last 
refuge  of  many  hard-hunted  whales,  unless  they  dive,  and  rise  to 
breathe  again  in  that  conjectured  clear  yet  frigid  flood  of  a  polar 
sea,  far  away  under  the  north  star. 

There  is  nothing  more  to  see,  or  noteworthy  to  learn,  at  or  be- 
yond Point  Barrow,  even  were  you  to  live  and  drag  out  a  wretched 
year's  existence  in  looking  for  it,  so  you  gladden  the  heart  of  your 
skipper  and  his  hardy  crew  by  telling  them  to  shape  a  course  home- 


The  Ringed  Seal  (Phoca  foetida). 
[The  common  Hair- Seal  of  the  Arctic  Ocean.} 

ward.  Back  through  the  Straits  of  Bering,  wrapped  in  a  chill 
thick  fog,  the  little  schooner  heels,  with  a  singing  northwester  on 
her  quarter  that  holds  her  canvas  just  as  taut  as  if  made  of  tough 
wood.  She  fairly  scrapes  by  the  Diomedes — the  walls  of  Noorna- 
book  loom  up  high  in  a  cold,  gray  fog-light,  as  though  its  bold, 
gray  cliffs  were  right  over  her  spars — but  the  crew  know  at  the  time 
that  they  are  more  than  two  miles  away  from  that  surf  which  noisily 
thunders  on  the  dark  rocks  of  these  islets.  That  same  chill  wind, 
and  gloomy  fog-surrounding,  follows  them  into  Bering  Sea — not  a 
glimpse  of  all  the  land  and  mountain,  which  they  so  plainly  dis- 
cerned going  up,  have  they  caught  going  down. 

What  trifles  often  determine  our  success  or  failure  in  life  !    Had 
it  not  been  for  a  sudden  sunburst  from  the  gloom  of  a  leaden  fog 


442  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

which  shrouded  all  about  it  in  its  misty  darkness,  and  thus  lighted 
up  a  lofty  russet  head  of  the  East  Cape  of  St.  Lawrence  Island,  a 
little  vessel  bearing  the  author  would  have  been  piled  up  and 
thrown  into  foaming  breakers  which  beat  upon  a  low,  rocky  reef 
that  reaches  out  from  its  feet.  This  gleam  of  light  reflected  from 
that  headland  warned  a  startled  man  on  the  lookout  just  in  time  to 
have  her  wheel  put  hard  up,  and  thus  luff  our  light  trim  craft  in 
season  to  shave  safely  by. 

St.  Lawrence  is  the  largest  island  in  Bering  Sea.  It  is  directly 
south  of  Bering  Straits,  one  hundred  and  eighty  miles  distant 
from  the  Diomedes  ;  it  is  eighty  to  eighty-five  miles  in  length,  with 
an  average  width  of  fifteen  or  twenty.  The  sea  has  built  onto  it 
quite  extensively,  in  very  much  the  same  manner  as  it  has  filled 
out  and  extended  the  coast  of  St.  Paul,  of  the  Pribylov  group.  At 
Kagallegak,  on  the  east  shore,  the  island  is  made  up  of  coarse  feld- 
spathic,  red.  granitic  flats  and  hills,  with  extensive  lagoons  and 
lakelets.  The  skeleton  of  this  island  seems  to  have  been  originally 
one  of  low  hills  and  ranges  of  granite,  with  volcanic  outbursts  every- 
where manifested  at  their  summits,  especially  on  the  north  shore. 
Between  them  stretch  long,  low  plains,  or  gently  rolling  uplands, 
and  perfectly  smooth  reaches  of  sand  and  gravelly  beaches  that 
border  the  sea  everywhere  not  so  marked  by  bluffs. 

At  Kagallegak  your  eye  sweeps  over  extensive  level  plains  to  the 
northward,  upon  which  a  green-stalked  and  white-plumed  tundra 
grass  (Eriophorum)  principally  grows  everywhere  on  the  wet  and 
boggy  surface,  while,  on  those  sand-beach  margins,  the  "  wild  wheat " 
(Elymus)  springs  up  most  abundantly,  short  and  stunted,  however. 
These  extended  low  areas  of  moorland  so  peculiar  to  this  island 
are  made  up  of  fine  granitic  drift  and  clays,  lined  at  their  sea-bor- 
ders with  a  low,  broad  sand-belt.  The  hills  and  hill  ranges  of  St. 
Lawrence  are  rich  in  color,  with  dark  blue-black  patches  inter- 
spersed which  indicate  a  location  of  trap-protrusions.  No  shrub- 
bery whatever  grows  upon  these  wind-swept  tundra  and  hills  save 
dwarfed  and  creeping  willows  ;  yet,  a  series  of  characteristic  rock- 
lichens  color  such  bare  summits  in  their  bright  relief  which  we 
have  just  noted.  The  rocks  themselves  are  reddish,  coarse-grained, 
shining  granites,  with  abundant  trap-protrusions,  that  weather  out 
and  fall  down  upon  the  flanks  of  the  peaks  and  ridges  in  dusky 
patches  and  streaks,  so  as  to  contrast,  from  a  slight  distance,  very 
sharply  with  the  main  ground  of  pinkish  rock,  which  is  moss-  and 


MORSE   AND   MAHLEMOOT.  443 

lichen-grown,  and  colored  here  and  there  with  areas  of  that  pecu- 
liar and  characteristic  greenish-russet  tinge  of  sphagnous  origin. 
This  dark  marking  of  those  trap-dikes  appears  like  the  presence  of 
low-growing  shrubbery  from  the  vessel,  as  an  observer  sails  by. 
Snow  and  ice  lie  all  the  year  around  in  small  bodies  within  the 
gullies  and  on  the  hill-sides. 

The  lower  plains  have  a  richer,  warmer,  yellowish-green  tone 
than  that  cold  tint  of  the  uplands,  while  the  sand  of  the  sea-shore  is 
a  bright  light-brown.  Small  streams  flow  down  from  these  hills, 
and  twist  and  turn  sluggishly  through  the  tundra  as  they  lead  to 
lakes  or  empty  directly  into  the  sea — a  few  parr,  or  young  salmon, 
being  the  only  fish  in  them  that  can  be  found  ;  most  of  the  fresh- 
water lakes  and  lagoons  are,  however,  fairly  stocked  with  familiar- 
looking  mullets  (Catastomus),  but  nothing  else. 

The  entire  expanse  of  these  lowlands  of  St.  Lawrence  are  pre- 
cisely like  all  of  those  vast  reaches  of  Alaskan  tundra — they  are 
great  saturated,  earthy  sponges,  filled  and  overrunning  with  wa- 
ter in  midsummer — the  chief  and  happiest  vegetation  upon  them 
being  that  same  beautiful  tufted  or  plumed  grass  which  we  no- 
ticed at  Michaelovsky,  since  the  white  and  silken  tassels  of  its 
feathery  inflorescence  never  fail  to  charm  even  tired  and  travel- 
worn  eyes.  This  grass,  in  conjunction  with  several  rank-growing 
mosses,  the  trailing  runners  of  the  crowberry-vines,  and  little 
patches  of  the  humble  arctic  raspberry  (Rubus  chamcemorus)  make 
up  that  conventional  tundra  color  of  russet-green  (flecked  with 
grayish-blue  spots  on  the  slopes  of  stern  northern  exposures)  which 
mark  these  great  marshy  tracts  of  Alaska,  and  under  which  eter- 
nal frost  is  found,  even  in  midsummer,  a  foot  or  two  only  from 
their  surfaces.  Small  white  shells  of  a  land-mollusk  (succinea\  are 
scattered  thickly  over  these  moorlands. 

On  the  flats  of  the  east  shore  of  St.  Lawrence  a  great  abundance 
of  drift-wood  was  piled  in  much  confusion.  Here  the  natives  had  a 
wood-cutting  camp,  hewing  and  carving ;  its  chips  were  scattered 
all  along  the  beach-levels  for  miles.  There  are  places,  here,  where 
the  ice  in  some  unusual  seasons  has  carried  large  logs  and  pieces 
of  drift-wood  far  back,  full  half  a  mile  from  the  sea,  and  a  vigorous 
growth  of  tundra  vegetation  now  flourishes  in  between  ;  and  there 
they  lie  to-day  deeply  embedded  in  the  swale,  settling  down  in  de- 
cay— that  slow,  hungering  eremacausis  of  the  Arctic. 

The  Innuits,  living  here  as  they  do,  some  three  or  four  hundred 


444 


OUK  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 


in  number,  are  great  walrus-hunters.  They  enjoy  a  location  that 
enables  them  to  secure  these  animals  at  all  seasons  of  a  year.  In  win- 
ter the  sea-horse  floats  on  big  ice-fields  ;  but  during  summer-time 
the  "  aibwook  "  hauls  up  to  sun  and  rest  his  heavy  body  in  and  on 
the  inviting  peace  of  those  beaches  of  St.  Lawrence.  A  famous  spot 
for  this  landing  of  the  walrus  is  on  the  rocky  and  pebbly  shores  of 
Poonook  (three  small  rocky  islets),  just  five  miles  east  of  the  sum- 
mer tents  of  Kagallegak.  These  tiny,  detached  fragments  of  St. 
Lawrence  stand  in  the  full  sweep  of  those  air-  and  water-  currents 

which  keep  broad  ice-floes 
in  constant  motion,  and 
thus  bring  walrus-herds 
into  range  of  Mahlemoot 
hunters,  who  have  a  winter 
village  dug  deep  into  sandy 
flats  of  "Poonookah." 

Naturally  enough  we 
regard  the  walrus  with 
more  than  passing  interest, 
for  it  plays  so  large  and  so 
vital  a  part  in  sustaining 
the  life  of  human  beings 
who  reside  in  these  arctic 
and  subarctic  regions  of 
Alaska.  Perhaps  the  only 
place  in  all  this  extended 


The  Walrus-hunter. 
[ASt.  Lawrence  Mahlcmoot—  in  winter  parka  with  the   brutes     are     found,     where 

hood  removed.   August  w,  1874.]  ^he  creature  itself  can  be 

closely  observed  and  studied,  is  that  unique  islet,  six  miles  east  of 
St.  Paul  (Pribylov  group)  and  about  four  hundred  miles  south  of 
St.  Lawrence. 

Here  the  morse  rests  upon  some  rocky,  surf-washed  tables  char- 
acteristic of  this  place  without  being  disturbed  ;  hence  the  locality 
afforded  me  a  particularly  pleasant  and  advantageous  opportunity 
of  minutely  observing  these  animals.  My  observations,  perhaps, 
would  not  have  passed  over  a  few  moments  of  general  notice,  had  I 
found  a  picture  presented  by  them  such  as  I  had  drawn  in  my 
mind  from  previous  descriptions  ;  the  contrary,  however,  stamping 
itself  so  suddenly  and  decidedly  upon  my  eye,  set  me  to  work  with 


MORSE  AND   MAHLEMOOT.  445 

pen  and  brush  in  noting  and  portraying  such  extraordinary  brutes, 
as  they  lay  grunting  and  bellowing,  unconscious  of  my  presence, 
and  not  ten  feet  away  from  the  ledge  upon  which  I  sat* 

Sitting  as  I  did  to  the  leeward  of  them,  with  a  strong  wind  blow- 
ing in  at  the  time  from  seaward,  which,  ever  and  anon,  fairly  covered 
many  of  them  with  foaming  surf-spray,  therefore  they  took  no  notice 
of  me  during  the  three  or  more  hours  of  my  study.  I  was  first  aston- 
ished at  observing  the  raw,  naked  appearance  of  the  hide  :  it  was 
a  skin  covered  with  multitudes  of  pustular-looking  warts  and  large 
boils  or  pimples,  without  hair  or  fur,  save  scattered  and  almost  invisi- 
ble hairs  ;  it  was  wrinkled  in  deep,  flabby  seam-folds,  and  marked  by 
dark-red  venous  lines,  which  showed  out  in  strong  contrast  through 
the  thicker  and  thinner  yellowish-brown  cuticle,  that  in  turn  seemed 
to  be  scaling  off  in  places  as  if  with  leprosy  ;  indeed,  a  fair  expres- 
sion of  this  walrus-hide  complexion  if  I  may  use  the  term,  can  be 
understood  by  the  inspection  of  those  human  countenances  in  the 
streets  and  on  the  highways  of  our  cities  which  are  designated  as 
the  faces  of  "bloats."  The  forms  of  Rosmarus  struck  my  eye  at 
first  in  a  most  unpleasant  manner,  and  the  longer  I  looked  at  them 
the  more  heightened  was  my  disgust ;  for  they  resembled  distorted, 
mortified,  shapeless  masses  of  flesh  ;  those  clusters  of  big,  swollen, 
watery  pimples,  which  were  of  a  yellow,  parboiled  flesh-color,  and 


*  These  favored  basaltic  tables  are  also  commented  upon  in  similar  connec- 
tion by  an  old  writer  in  1775,  Shuldham,  who  calls  them  "  echouries  ;"  he  is 
describing  the  Atlantic  walrus  as  it  appears  at  the  Magdalen  Islands:  "The 
echouries  are  formed  principally  by  nature,  being  a  gradual  slope  of  soft  rock, 
with  which  the  Magdalen  Islands  abound,  about  eighty  to  one  hundred  yards 
wide  at  the  water-side,  and  spreading  so  as  to  contain,  near  the  summit,  a  very 
considerable  number."  The  tables  at  Walrus  Island  and  those  at  Southwest 
Point  are  very  much  less  in  area  than  those  described  by  Shuldham,  and  are 
a  small  series  of  low,  saw-tooth  jetties  of  the  harder  basalt,  washed  in  relief, 
from  a  tufa  matrix  ;  there  is  no  room  to  the  landward  of  them  for  many  wal- 
ruses to  lie  upon.  The  Odob&nus  does  not  like  to  haul  up  on  loose  or  shingly 
shores,  because  it  has  the  greatest  difficulty  in  getting  a  solid  hold  for  its  fore 
flippers  with  which  to  pry  up  and  move  ahead  its  huge,  clumsy  body.  When  it 
hauls  on  a  sand  beach,  it  never  attempts  to  crawl  out  to  the  dry  region  back  of 
the  surf,  but  lies  just  awash,  at  high  water.  In  this  fashion  they  used  to  rest 
all  along  the  sand-reaches  of  St.  Paul  prior  to  the  Russian  advent  in  1786-87  •, 
and  when  Shuldham  was  inditing  his  letters  on  the  habits  of  Rosmarus,  Odo- 
bcenus  was  then  lying  out  in  full  force  and  great  physical  peace  on  the  Priby- 
lov  Islands. 


446 


OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 


principally  located  over  the  shoulders  and  around  the  necks,  pain- 
fully suggested  unwholesomeness. 

On  examining  the  herd  individually,  and  looking  upon  perhaps 
one  hundred  and  fifty  specimens  directly  beneath  and  within  the 
sweep  of  my  observation,  I  noticed  that  there  were  no  females 
among  them  ;  they  were  all  males,  and  some  of  the  younger  ones 
had  considerable  hair,  or  enough  of  that  close,  short,  brown  coat  to 
give  a  hirsute  tone  to  their  bodies — hence  I  believe  that  it  was  only 
the  old,  wholly  matured  males  which  offered  to  my  eyes  such  bare 
and  loathsome  nakedness. 

I  noticed,  as  they  swam  around,  and  before  they  landed,  that 
they  were  clumsy  in  the  water,  not  being  able  to  swim  at  all  like 


Section  showing  Construction  of  Mahlemobt  Winter  Houses  at  Poonook. 

the  Phoddoe  and  the  Otariidce ;  yet  their  progress  in  the  sea  was 
wonderfully  alert  when  brought  into  comparison  with  that  terres- 
trial action  of  theirs  ;  the  immense  bulk  and  weight  of  this  walrus, 
contrasted  with  the  size  and  strength  of  its  limbs,  renders  it  sim- 
ply impotent  when  hauled  out  of  the  water  on  those  low,  rocky 
beaches  or  shelves  upon  which  it  rests.  Like  the  seals,  however,  it 
swims  entirely  under  water  when  travelling,  but  it  does  not  rise,  in 
my  opinion,  so  frequently  to  take  breath  ;  when  it  does,  it  blows  or 
snorts  not  unlike  a  whale.  Often  have  I  heard  this  puffing  snort 
of  those  animals  (since  the  date  of  these  observations  on  Walrus 
Islet),  when  standing  on  the  bluffs  near  the  village  of  St.  Paul  and 
looking  seaward  ;  on  one  cool,  quiet  morning  in  May  I  followed 
with  my  eye  and  ear  a  herd  of  walrus,  tracing  its  progress  some 
distance  off  and  up  along  the  east  coast  of  the  island  by  those  tiny 


<      o 
0      I 


o    < 

1) 

JQ 

i 


I   I 


V  hi *3 

:;:;^       '!  •  ^        •   —  ^ 


MORSE  AND   MAHLEMOOT.  447 

jets  of  moisture  or  vapor  from  its  confined  breath  which  the  ani- 
mals blew  off  as  they  rose  to  respire. 

Mariners,  while  coasting  in  the  Arctic,  have  often  been  put  on 
timely  footing  by  a  walrus  fog-horn  snorting  and  blowing  as  the 
ship  dangerously  sails  silently  through  dense  fog  toward  land  or 
ice-floes,  upon  which  those  animals  may  be  resting ;  indeed,  these 
uncouth  monitors  to  this  indistinct  danger  rise  and  bob  under  and 
around  a  vessel  like  so  many  gnomes  or  demons  of  fairy  romance, 
and  sailors  may  well  be  pardoned  for  much  of  that  strange  yarning 
which  they  have  given  to  the  reading  world  respecting  the  sea- 
horse during  the  last  three  centuries. 

When  a  walrus-herd  comes  ashore,  after  short  preliminary  sur- 
veys of  the  intended  spot  of  landing,  an  old  veteran  usually  takes 
the  lead  of  a  band  which  is  so  disposed. 

Finally  the  first  one  makes  a  landing,  and  no  sooner  gets  com- 
posed upon  the  rocks  for  sleep  than  a  second  one  comes  along, 
prodding  and  poking  with  its  blunted  tusks,  demanding  room  also, 
thus  causing  the  first  to  change  its  position  to  another  location  still 
farther  off  and  up  from  the  water,  a  few  feet  beyond ;  then  the  sec- 
ond is  in  turn  treated  in  the  same  way  by  a  third,  and  so  on  until 
hundreds  will  be  slowly  packed  together  on  the  shore  as  thickly  as 
they  can  lie — never  far  back  from  the  surf,  however — pillowing 
their  heads  upon  the  bodies  of  one  another  :  and,  they  do  not  act 
at  all  quarrelsome  toward  each  other.  Occasionally,  in  their  lazy, 
phlegmatic  adjusting  and  crowding,  the  posteriors  of  some  old  bull 
will  be  lifted  up,  and  remain  elevated  in  the  air,  while  the  passive 
owner  continues  to  sleep,  with  its  head,  perhaps,  beneath  the  pudgy 
form  of  its  neighbor. 

These  pinnipeds  are,  perhaps,  of  all  animals,  the  most  difficult 
subjects  that  an  artist  can  find  to  reproduce  from  life.  There  are 
no  angles  or  elbows  to  seize  hold  of.  The  lines  of  body  and  limbs 
are  all  rounded,  free  and  flowing  ;  yet,  the  very  fleshiest  examples 
never  have  that  bloated,  wind-distended  look  which  most  of  the 
published  figures  give  them.  One  must  first  become  familiarized 
with  the  restless,  varying  attitudes  of  these  creatures  by  extended 
personal  contact  and  observation  ere  he  can  satisfy  himself  with  the 
result  of  his  drawings,  no  matter  how  expert  he  may  be  in  rapid  and 
artistic  delineation.  Life-studies  by  artists  of  the  young  of  the  At- 
lantic walrus  have  been  made  in  several  instances  ;  but  of  the  mature 
animal,  until  my  drawing,  there  was  nothing  extant  of  that  character. 


448  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

As  the  walrus  came  ashore  they  made  no  use  of  their  tusks  in  as- 
sistance ;  but  such  effort  was  all  done  by  their  fore  flippers  and  the 
"  boosting  "  of  exceptionally  heavy  surf  which  rolled  in  at  wide  inter- 
vals, and  for  which  marine  assistance  the  walrus  themselves  seemed 
to  patiently  wait.  When  moving  on  land  they  do  not  seem  to  have 
any  real  power  in  the  hinder  limbs.  These  are  usually  pulled  and 
twitched  up  behind,  or  feebly  flattened  out  at  right  angles  to  its 
body.  Terrestrial  progression  is  slowly  and  tediously  made  by  a 
dragging  succession  of  short  steps  forward  on  the  forefeet ;  but  if 
an  alarm  is  given,  it  is  astonishing  to  note  the  contrast  which  they 
present  in  their  method  of  getting  back  to  sea  :  they  fairly  roll  and 
hustle  themselves  over  and  into  the  waves  within  an  exceedingly 
short  lapse  of  time. 

When  sleeping  on  drifting  ice-floes  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  or  on 
rocks  at  St.  Matthew's  or  Walrus  Island,  they  resort  to  a  very  sin- 
gular method  of  keeping  guard,  if  I  may  so  term  it.  In  this  herd 
of  three  or  four  hundred  male  walrus  that  were  beneath  my  vision, 
though  nearly  all  were  sleeping,  yet  the  movement  of  one  would 
disturb  the  other,  which  would  raise  its  head  in  a  stupid  manner 
for  a  few  moments,  grunt  once  or  twice,  and  before  lying  down  to 
sleep  again  it  would  strike  the  slumbering  form  of  its  nearest  com- 
panion with  its  tusks,  causing  that  animal  to  rouse  up  in  turn  for 
a  few  moments  also,  grunt,  and  pass  the  blow  on  to  the  next,  lying 
down  in  the  same  manner.  Thus  the  word  was  transferred,  as  it 
were,  constantly  and  unceasingly  around,  always  keeping  some  one 
or  two  aroused,  which  consequently  were  more  alert  than  the  rest. 

On  Walrus  Island  a  particularly  large  individual  walrus  was  se- 
lected and  shot,  out  of  a  herd  of  more  than  two  hundred.  This  was 
done  at  the  author's  instance,  who  made  the  following  memoranda  : 
It  measured  twelve  feet  seven  inches  from  its  bluff  nostrils  to  the 
tip  of  its  excessively  abbreviated  tail,  which  was  not  more  than  two 
and  one-half  or  three  inches  long ;  it  had  the  surprising  girth  of 
fourteen  feet.  An  immense  mass  of  blubber  on  the  shoulders  and 
around  the  neck  made  the  head  look  strangely  small  in  propor- 
tion, and  the  posteriors  decidedly  attenuated ;  indeed,  the  whole 
weight  of  the  animal  was  bound  up  in  its  girth  anteriorly.  It  was 
a  physical  impossibility  for  me  to  weigh  this  brute,  and  I  therefore 
can  do  nothing  but  make  a  guess,  having  this  fact  to  guide  me — 
that  the  head,  cut  directly  off  at  the  junction  with  the  spine,  or  the 
occipital  or  atlas  joint,  weighed  eighty  pounds  ;  that  the  skin,  which 


MORSE   AND   MAHLEMOOT.  449 

I  carefully  removed  with  the  aid  of  these  natives,  with  the  head, 
weighed  five  hundred  and  seventy  pounds.  Deducting  the  head 
and  excluding  the  flippers,  I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  skin  it- 
self would  not  weigh  less  than  three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  and 
the  animal  could  not  weigh  much  less  than  a  ton,  from  two  thou- 
sand to  two  thousand  two  hundred  pounds. 

The  head  had  a  decidedly  flattened  appearance,  for  the  nostrils, 
eyes,  and  ear-spots  seem  to  be  placed  nearly  on  top  of  the  cranium. 
The  nasal  apertures  are  literally  so,  opening  directly  over  the  muz- 
zle. They  are  oval,  and  closed  parallel  with  the  longitudinal  axis  of 
the  skull,  and  when  dilated  are  about  an  inch  in  their  greatest  di- 
ameter. 

The  eyes  are  small,  but  prominent ;  placed  nearly  on  top  of  the 
head,  and,  protruding  from  their  sockets,  they  bulge  like  those  of  a 
lobster.  The  iris  and  pupil  of  this  eye  is  less  than  one-fourth  of  its 
exposed  surface  ;  the  sclerotic  coat  swells  out  from  under  the  lids 
when  they  are  opened,  and  is  of  a  dirty,  mottled  coffee-yellow  and 
brown,  with  an  occasional  admixture  of  white  ;  the  iris  itself  is 
light-brown,  with  dark-brown  rays  and  spots.  I  noticed  that  when- 
ever the  animal  roused  itself,  instead  of  turning  its  head,  it  only 
rolled  its  eyes,  seldom  moving  the  cranium  more  than  to  elevate  it 
The  eyes  seem  to  move,  rotating  in  every  direction  when  the  creat- 
ure is  startled,  giving  the  face  of  this  monster  a  very  extraordi- 
nary attraction,  especially  when  studied  by  an  artist.  The  expression 
is  just  indescribable.  The  range  of  sight  enjoyed  by  the  walrus 
out  of  water,  I  can  testify,  is  not  well  developed,  for,  after  throw- 
ing small  chips  of  rock  down  upon  the  walruses  near  me,  several 
of  them  not  being  ten  feet  distant,  and  causing  them  only  to  stu- 
pidly stare  and  give  vent  to  low  grunts  of  astonishment,  I  then  rose 
gently  and  silently  to  my  feet,  standing  boldly  up  before  them  ; 
but  then,  even,  I  was  not  noticed,  though  their  eyes  rolled  all  over 
from  above  to  under  me.  Had  I,  however,  made  a  little  noise,  or 
had  I  been  standing  as  far  as  one  thousand  yards  away  from  them 
to  the  windward,  they  would  have  taken  the  alarm  instantly,  and 
tumbled  off  into  the  sea  like  so  many  hustled  wool-sacks,  for  their 
sense  of  smell  is  of  the  keen,  keenest. 

The  ears  of  the  walrus,  or  rather  the  auricles  to  the  ears,  are 
on  the  same  lateral  line  at  the  top  of  the  head  with  the  nostrils 
and  eyes,  the  latter  being  just  midway  between.  The  pavilion,  or 

auricle,  is  a  mere  fleshy  wrinkle  or  fold,  not  at  all  raised  or  devel- 
29 


450  OUR  ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

oped  ;  and  from  what  I  could  see  of  the  meatus  externus  it  was  very 
narrow  and  small ;  still,  the  natives  assured  me  that  the  Otariidce 
had  no  better  organs  of  hearing  than  Eosmarus. 

The  head  of  the  male  walrus,  to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  from 
which  I  afterward  removed  the  skin,  was  eighteen  inches  long  be- 
tween the  nostrils  and  the  post-occipital  region ;  and,  although 
its  enormous  tusks  seemed  to  be  firmly  planted  in  their  osseous 
sockets,  judge  of  my  astonishment  when  one  of  the  younger  natives 
flippantly  struck  a  tusk  with  a  wooden  club  quite  smartly,  and  then 
easily  jerked  the  tooth  forth.  I  had  frequently  observed  that  it 
was  difficult  to  keep  such  teeth  from  rattling  out  of  their  alveoli  in 
any  of  the  best  skulls  I  had  gathered  of  the  fur  seals  and  sea-lions, 
especially  difficult  in  the  case  of  the  latter. 

Its  tusks,  or  canines,  are  set  firmly  under  the  nostril-apertures 
in  deep,  massive,  bony  pockets,  giving  that  strange,  broad,  square- 
cut  front  of  the  muzzle  so  characteristic  of  its  physiognomy. 

The  upper  lips  of  this  walrus  of  Bering  Sea  are  exceedingly 
thick  and  gristly,  and  its  bluff,  square  muzzle  is  studded,  in  regu- 
lar rows  and  intervals,  with  a  hundred  or  so,  short,  stubby,  gray- 
white  bristles,  varying  in  length  from  one-half  to  three  inches. 
There  are  a  few  very  short  and  much  softer  bristles  set,  also,  on 
the  fairly  hidden  chin  of  its  lower  jaw,  which  closes  up  under  a 
projecting  snout  and  muzzle,  and  is  nearly  concealed  by  the  enor- 
mous tushes,  when  laterally  viewed. 

The  thickness  of  the  skin  of  the  walrusMs  a  marked  and  most 
anomalous  feature.  I  remember  well  how  surprised  I  was,  when  I 
followed  the  incision  of  a  broad-axe  used  in  beheading  the  speci- 
men shot  for  my  benefit,  to  find  that  the  skin  over  its  shoulders 
and  around  the  throat  and  chest  was  three  inches  thick — a  puffy, 
spongy  epidermis,  outwardly  hateful  to  the  sight,  and  inwardly  rest- 
ing upon  a  slightly  acrid  fat  or  blubber  so  peculiar  to  this  animal. 
Nowhere  was  that  hide,  upon  the  thinnest  point  of  measurement, 
less  than  half  an  inch  thick.  It  feeds  exclusively  upon  shell- 
fish (Lamellibranchiata),  or  clams  principally,  and  also  upon  the 
bulbous  roots  and  tender  stalks  of  certain  marine  plants  and 
grasses  which  grow  in  great  abundance  over  the  bottoms  of  broad, 
shallow  lagoons  and  bays  of  the  main  Alaskan  coast.  I  took  from 
the  paunch  of  the  walrus  above  mentioned  more  than  a  bushel  of 
crushed  clams  in  their  shells,  all  of  which  that  animal  had  evidently 
just  swallowed,  for  digestion  had  scarcely  commenced.  Many  of 


MORSE   AND   MAHLEMOOT.  451 

those  clams  in  that  stomach,  large  as  my  clinched  hands,  were  not 
even  broken  ;  and  it  is  in  digging  this  shell- fish  food  that  the  ser- 
vices rendered  by  its  enormous  tusks  become  apparent.* 

I  am  not  in  accord  with  some  singular  tales  told,  on  the  Atlan- 
tic side,  about  the  uses  of  these  gleaming  ivory  teeth,  so  famous 
and  conspicuous  :  I  believe  that  the  Alaskan  walrus  employs  them 
solely  in  his  labor  of  digging  clams  and  rooting  bulbs  from  those 
muddy  oozes  and  sand-bars  in  the  estuary  waters  peculiar  to  his 
geographical  distribution.  Certainly,  it  is  difficult  for  me  to  rec- 
oncile my  idea  of  such  uncouth,  timid  brutes,  as  were  those  spread 
before  me  on  Walrus  Islet,  with  any  of  the  strange  chapters  written 
as  to  the  ferocity  and  devilish  courage  of  a  Greenland  "  morse." 
These  animals  were  exceedingly  cowardly,  abjectly  so.  It  is  with 
the  greatest  difficulty  that  the  natives,  when  a  herd  of  walruses  are 
surprised,  can  get  a  second  shot  at  them.  So  far  from  clustering 
in  attack  around  their  boats,  it  is  the  very  reverse,  and  a  hunter's 
only  solicitude  is  which  way  to  travel  in  order  that  he  may  come 
up  with  the  fleeing  animals  as  they  rise  to  breathe. 

On  questioning  the  natives,  as  we  returned,  they  told  me  that 
the  walrus  of  Bering  Sea  was  monogamous,  and  that  the  difference 
between  the  sexes  in  size,  color,  and  shape  is  inconsiderable  ;  or,  in 
other  words,  that  until  the  males  are  old  the  young  males  and  the 
females  of  all  ages  are  not  remarkably  distinct,  and  would  not  be  at 
all  if  it  were  not  for  their  teeth.  They  said  that  the  female  brings 


*  It  is,  and  always  will  be,  a  source  of  sincere  regret  to  me  and  my  friends 
that  I  did  not  bodily  preserve  this  huge  paunch  and  its  contents.  It  would 
have  filled  a  half -barrel  very  snugly,  and  then  its  mass  of  freshly  swallowed 
clams  (Mya  truncata),  filmy  streaks  of  macerated  kelp,  and  fragments  of  crus- 
taceans, could  have  been  carefully  examined  during  a  week  of  leisure  at  the 
Smithsonian  Institution.  It  was,  however,  ripped  open  so  quickly  by  one  of  the 
Aleutes,  who  kicked  the  contents  out,  that  I  hardly  knew  what  had  been  done 
ere  the  strong-smelling  subject  was  directly  under  my  nose.  The  natives  then 
were  anxious  that  I  should  hurry  through  with  my  sketches,  measurements, 
etc.,  so  that  they  might  the  sooner  push  off  their  egg-laden  bidarrah  and  cross 
back  to  the  main  island  before  the  fogs  would  settle  over  our  homeward  track, 
or  the  rapidly  rising  wind  shift  to  the  northward  and  imperil  our  passage. 
Weighty  reasons  these,  which  so  fully  impressed  me,  that  this  unique  stomach 
of  a  camiwra  was  overlooked  and  left  behind  ;  hence,  with  the  exception  of 
curiously  turning  over  the  clams  (especially  those  uncrushed  specimens),  which 
formed  the  great  bulk  of  its  contents,  I  have  no  memoranda  or  even  distinct 
recollection  of  the  other  materials  that  were  incorporated. 


452  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

forth  her  young,  a  single  calf,  in  June  usually,  on  the  ice-floes  in 
the  Arctic  Ocean,  above  Bering  Straits,  between  Point  Barrow  and 
Cape  Seartze  Kammin  ;  that  this  calf  resembles  the  parent  in  gen- 
eral proportions  and  color  when  it  is  hardly  over  six  weeks  old,  but 
that  the  tusks  (which  give  it  its  most  distinguishing  expression)  are 
not  visible  until  the  second  year  of  its  life  ;  that  the  walrus  mother 
is  strongly  attached  to  her  offspring,  and  nurses  it  later  through 
the  season  in  the  sea  ;  that  the  walrus  sleeps  profoundly  in  the 
water,  floating  almost  vertically,  with  barely  more  than  the  nostrils 
above  water,  and  can  be  easily  approached,  if  care  is  taken  as  to  the 
wind,  so  as  to  spear  it  or  thrust  a  lance  into  its  bowels ;  that  the 
bulls  do  not  fight  as  savagely  as  the  fur-seal  or  the  sea-lion  ;  that 
the  blunted  tusks  of  these  combatants  seldom  do  more  than  bruise 
their  thick  hides  ;  that  they  can  remain  under  water  nearly  an  hour, 
or  about  twice  as  long  as  the  seals,  and  that  they  sink  like  so  many 
stones  immediately  after  being  shot  at  sea. 

I  personally  made  no  experiments  touching  the  peculiarity  of 
sinking  immediately  after  being  shot.  Of  course,  on  reflection,  it 
will  appear  to  any  mind  that  all  seals,  no  matter  how  fat  or  how  lean, 
would  sink  instantly  out  of  sight,  if  not  killed,  at  the  shock  of  a 
bullet ;  even  if  mortally  wounded,  the  great  involuntary  impulse 
of  brain  and  muscle  would  be  to  dive  and  speed  away,  for  all  swim- 
ming is  submarine  when  pinnipeds  desire  to  travel. 

Touching  this  mooted  question,  I  had  an  opportunity  when  in 
Port  Townsend,  during  1874,  to  ask  a  man  who  had  served  as  a 
partner  in  a  fur-sealing  schooner  off  the  Straits  of  Fuca.  He  told 
me  that  unless  a  seal  was  instantly  killed  by  the  passage  of  his 
rifle-bullet  through  its  brain,  it  was  never  secured,  and  would  sink 
before  they  could  reach  the  bubbling  wake  of  its  disappearance. 
If,  however,  the  aim  of  a  marksman  had  been  correct,  then  its  body 
was  invariably  taken  within  five  to  ten  minutes  after  the  rifle  dis- 
charge. Only  one  man  does  the  shooting ;  the  rest  of  such  a 
crew,  ten  to  twelve  white  men  and  Indians,  man  canoes  and  boats 
which  are  promptly  despatched  from  the  schooner,  after  each  re- 
port, in  the  direction  of  a  victim.  How  long  one  of  the  bodies 
of  these  " clean "  killed  seals  would  float  he  did  not  know;  the 
practice  always  was  to  get  it  as  quickly  as  possible,  fearing  that 
the  bearings  of  its  position,  when  shot  from  a  schooner,  might  be 
confused  or  lost.  He  also  affirmed  that,  in  his  opinion,  there  were 
not  a  dozen  men  on  the  whole  northwest  coast  who  were  good 


MORSE   AND   MAHLEMOOT.  453 

enough  with  a  rifle,  and  expert  at  distance  calculation,  to  shoot  fur- 
seals  successfully  from  the  deck  of  a  vessel  on  the  ocean.  The 
Indians  of  Cape  Flattery  do  most  of  their  pelagic  fur-sealing  by 
cautiously  approaching  from  the  leeward  when  these  animals  are 
asleep,  and  then  throw  line-darts  or  harpoons  into  them  before  they 
awaken. 

The  finest  bidarrah  skin-boats  of  transportation  that  I  have  seen 
in  this  country  were  those  of  the  St.  Lawrence  natives.  These  were 
made  out  of  dressed  walrus-hides,  shaved  and  pared  down  by  them 
to  the  requisite  thickness,  so  that  when  they  were  sewed  with 
sinews  to  the  wooden  whalebone-lashed  frames  of  such  boats  they 
dried  into  a  pale  greenish-white  prior  to  oiling,  and  were  even  then 
almost  translucent,  tough  and  strong. 

When  I  stepped,  for  the  first  time,  into  the  baidar  of  St.  Paul 
Island,  and  went  ashore,  from  the  Alexander,  over  a  heavy  sea, 
safely  to  the  lower  bight  of  Lukannon  Bay,  my  sensations  were  of 
emphatic  distrust ;  the  partially  water-softened  skin-covering  would 
puff  up  between  the  wooden  ribs,  and  then  draw  back,  as  the  waves 
rose  and  fell,  so  much  like  an  unstable  support  above  the  cold,  green 
water  below,  that  I  frankly  expressed  my  surprise  at  such  an 
outlandish  craft.  My  thoughts  quickly  turned  to  a  higher  ap- 
preciation of  those  hardy  navigators  who  used  these  vessels  in  cir- 
cumpolar  seas  years  ago,  and  of  the  Russians  who,  more  recently, 
employed  bidarrahs  chiefly  to  explore  Alaskan  and  Kamchatkan 
terrce  incognita.  There  is  an  old  poem  in  Avitus,  written  by  a 
Roman  as  early  as  445  A.D.  ;  it  describes  the  ravages  of  Saxon 
pirates  along  the  southern  coasts  of  Britain,  who  used  just  such 
vessels  as  this  bidarrah  of  St  Paul. 

"  Quin  et  armoricus  piratim  Saxona  tractus 
Spirabat,  cui  pelle  falum  fulcare  Britannum 
Ludus,  et  assuto  glaucum  mare  findere  lembo. '' 

These  boats  were  probably  covered  with  either  horse's  or  bulls' 
hides.  When  used  in  England  they  were  known  as  coracles;  in 
Ireland  they  were  styled  curachs.  Pliny  tells  us  that  Caesar  moved 
his  army  in  Britain  over  lakes  and  rivers  in  such  boats.  Even  the 
Greeks  used  them,  terming  them  karabia  ;  and  the  Russian  word 
of  korabl',  or  "  ship,"  is  derived  from  it.  King  Alfred,  in  870-872, 
tells  us  that  the  Finns  made  sad  havoc  among  many  Swedish  set- 
tlements on  the  numerous  "  meres  "  (lakes)  in  the  moors  of  that 


454  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

country,  by  "  carrying  their  ships  (baidars)  overland  to  the  meres 
whence  they  make  depredations  on  the  Northmen  ;  their  ships  are 
small  and  very  light." 

Until  I  saw  these  bidarrahs  of  the  St.  Lawrence  natives,  in  1874, 
I  was  more  or  less  inclined  to  believe  that  the  tough,  thick,  and 
spongy  hide  of  a  walrus  would  be  too  refractory  in  dressing  for 
use  in  covering  such  light  frames,  especially  those  of  the  bidarka  ; 
but  the  manifest  excellence  and  seaworthiness  of  those  Eskimo 
boats  satisfied  me  that  I  was  mistaken.  I  saw,  however,  abundant 
evidence  of  a  much  greater  labor  required  to  tan  or  pare  down 
this  thick  cuticle  to  that  thin,  dense  transparency  so  marked  on 
their  bidarrahs ;  for  the  pelt  of  a  hair-seal,  or  sea-lion,  does  not 
need  any  more  attention,  when  applied  to  this  service,  than  that  of 
simply  unhairing  it.  This  is  done  by  first  sweating  the  "  loughtak  " 
in  piles,  then  rudely,  but  rapidly,  scraping  with  blunt  knives  or 
stone  flensers  the  hair  off  in  large  patches  at  every  stroke  ;  the 
skin  is  then  air-dried,  being  stretched  on  a  stout  frame,  where,  in 
the  lapse  of  a  few  weeks,  it  becomes  as  rigid  as  a  board.  When- 
ever wanted  for  use  thereafter,  it  is  soaked  in  water  until  soft  or 
"  green  "  again  ;  then  it  is  sewed  with  sinews,  while  in  this  fresh 
condition,  tightly  over  the  slight  wooden  skeleton  of  the  bidarka  or 
the  heavier  frame  of  a  bidarrah.  In  this  manner  all  boats  and 
lighters  at  the  islands  are  covered.  Then  they  are  air-dried  thor- 
oughly before  oiling,  which  is  done  when  the  skin  has  become  well 
indurated,  so  as  to  bind  the  ribs  and  keel  as  with  an  iron  plating. 
The  thick,  unrefined  seal-oil  keeps  the  water  out  for  twelve  to 
twenty  hours,  according  to  the  character  of  the  hides.  When, 
however,  the  skin-covering  begins  to  "  bag  in  "  between  the  ribs  of 
its  frame,  then  it  is  necessary  to  haul  the  bidarrah  out  and  air-dry 
it  again,  and  then  re-oil.  If  attended  to  thoroughly  and  constant- 
ly, those  skin-covered  boats  are  the  best  species  of  lighter  which 
can  be  used  in  these  waters,  for  they  will  stand  more  thumping  and 
pounding  on  the  rocks  and  alongside  ship  than  all  wooden,  or  even 
corrugated-iron,  lighters  could  endure  and  remain  seaworthy. 

The  flesh  of  the  walrus  is  not,  to  our  palate,  at  all  toothsome  ; 
it  is  positively  uninviting.  That  flavor  of  the  raw,  rank  mollusca, 
upon  which  it  feeds,  seems  to  permeate  every  fibre  of  its  flesh,  mak- 
ing it  very  offensive  to  the  civilized  palate  ;  but  the  Eskimo,  who 
do  not  have  any  of  our  squeamishness,  regard  it  as  highly  and  feed 
upon  it  as  steadily,  as  we  do  on  our  own  best  corn-fed  beef.  Indeed, 


MORSE   AND   MAHLEMOOT. 


455 


the  walrus  to  an  Eskimo  answers  just  as  the  cocoa-palm  does  to 
a  South  Sea  islander  :  it  feeds  him,  it  clothes  him,  it  heats  and 
illuminates  his  "  igloo, "  and  it  arms  him  for  the  chase,  while  he 
builds  a  summer  shelter  and  rides  upon  the  sea  by  virtue  of  its  hide. 
The  morse,  however,  is  not  of  much  account  to  the  seal-hunters 
on  the  Pribylov  Islands.  They  still  find,  by  stirring  up  the  sand- 


Newack's   Brother,   with   a  Sealskin  full   of  Walrus-oil. 
[ifahlemoot  boy— fourteen  or  fifteen,  years  of  age.] 

dunes  and  digging  about  them  at  Northeast  Point,  all  the  ivory  that 
they  require  for  their  domestic  use  on  the  islands,  nothing  else  be- 
longing to  a  walrus  being  of  the  slightest  economic  value  to  them. 
Some  authorities  have  spoken  well  of  walrus-meat  as  an  article  of 
diet.  Either  they  had  that  sauce  for  it  born  of  inordinate  hunger, 
or  else  the  cooks  deceived  them.  Starving  explorers  in  the  arctic 
regions  could  relish  it — they  would  thankfully  and  gladly  eat  any- 
thing that  was  juicy,  and  sustained  life,  with  zest  and  gastronomic 


456  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

fervor.  The  Eskimo  naturally  like  it ;  it  is  a  necessity  to  their 
existence,  and  thus  a  relish  for  it  is  acquired.  I  can  readily  under- 
stand, by  personal  experience,  how  a  great  many,  perhaps  a  majority 
of  our  own  people,  could  speak  well,  were  they  north,  of  seal-meat, 
of  whale  "  rind,"  and  of  polar-bear  steaks  ;  but  I  know  that  a  mouth- 
ful of  fresh  or  "  cured  "  walrus-flesh  would  make  their  "gorges  rise." 
The  St.  Paul  natives  refuse  to  touch  it  as  an  article  of  diet  in  any 
shape  or  manner.  I  saw  them  removing  the  enormous  testicles  of 
an  old  morse  which  was  shot,  for  my  purposes,  on  Walrus  Island. 
They  told  me  they  did  so  in  obedience  to  the  wishes  of  a  widow 
doctress  at  the  village,  Maria  Seedova,  who  desired  a  pair  for  her 
incantations. 

Curiosity,  mingled  with  a  desire  to  really  understand,  alone 
tempted  me  to  taste  some  walrus-meat  which  was  placed  before 
me  at  Poonook,  on  St.  Lawrence  Island ;  and  candor  compels  me 
to  say  that  it  was  worse  than  the  old  beaver's  tail  which  I  had  been 
victimized  with  in  British  Columbia,  worse  than  the  tough  brown- 
bear  steak  of  Bristol  Bay — in  fact,  it  is  the  worst  of  all  fresh  flesh 
of  which  I  know.  It  had  a  strong  flavor  of  an  indefinite  acrid 
nature,  which  turned  my  palate  and  my  stomach  instantaneously 
and  simultaneously,  while  the  surprised  natives  stared  in  bewildered 
silence  at  their  astonished  and  disgusted  guest.  They,  however, 
greedily  put  chunks,  two  inches  square  and  even  larger,  of  this 
flesh  and  blubber  into  their  mouths  as  rapidly  as  the  storage  room 
there  would  permit ;  and  with  what  grimy  gusto  !  as  the  corners 
of  their  large  lips  dripped  with  the  fatness  of  their  feeding.  How 
little  they  thought,  then,  that  in  a  few  short  seasons  they  would  die 
of  starvation,  sitting  in  these  same  igloos — their  caches  empty  and 
nothing  but  endless  fields  of  barren  ice  where  a  life-giving  sea 
should  be.  The  winter  of  1879-80  was  one  of  exceptional  rigor  in 
the  Arctic,  although  in  the  United  States  it  was  unusually  mild  and 
open.  The  ice  closed  in  solid  around  St.  Lawrence  Island — so  firm 
and  unshaken  by  the  giant  leverage  of  wind  and  tide  that  all  walrus 
were  driven  far  to  the  southward  and  eastward  beyond  the  reach 
of  those  unhappy  inhabitants  of  that  island,  who,  thus  unexpect- 
edly deprived  of  their  mainstay  and  support,  seemed  to  have  mis- 
erably starved  to  death  then,  with  an  exception  of  one  small  village 
on  the  north  shore :  thus,  the  residents  of  Poonook,  Poogovellyak, 
and  Kagallegak  settlements  perished,  to  a  soul,  from  hunger  ; 
nearly  three  hundred  men,  women,  and  children.  I  recall  that  visit 


MORSE  AND   MAHLEMOOT. 


457 


which  I  made  to  these  alert  Innuits,  August,  1874,  with  sadness,  in 
this  unfortunate  connection,  because  they  impressed  me  with  their 
manifest  superiority  over  the  savages  of  our  northwest  coast.  They 
seemed,  then,  to  be  living,  during  nine  months  of  the  year,  almost 


"  Newack  "  and  "  Oogack." 
[St.  Lawrence  MaMemoots :  pen  portraits  made  at  PoogoveUyak,  August,  1674.] 

wholly  upon  the  flesh  and  oil  of  the  morse.  Clean-limbed,  bright- 
eyed,  and  jovial,  they  profoundly  impressed  me  with  their  happy 
reliance  and  subsistence  upon  the  walrus-herds  of  Bering  Sea.  I 
could  not  help  remarking  then,  that  these  people  had  never  been 
subjected  to  the  temptations  and  subsequent  sorrow  of  putting 


458  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

their  trust  in  princes  ;  hence  their  independence  and  good  heart. 
But  now  it  appears  that  it  will  not  do  to  put  your  trust  in  Eosmarus 
either. 

I  know  that  it  is  said  by  Parry,  by  Hall,  and  lately  by  others, 
that  the  flesh  of  the  Atlantic  walrus  is  palatable  ;  perhaps  the  nat- 
ure of  its  food-supply  is  the  cause.  We  all  recognize  a  wide  differ- 
ence in  pork  from  hogs  fed  on  corn  and  those  fed  on  beech-  mast 
and  oak-acorns,  and  those  which  have  lived  upon  the  offal  of  the 
slaughtering  houses,  or  have  gathered  the  decayed  castings  of  the 
sea-shore;  the  sea-horse  of  Bering  Sea  lives  upon  that  which  does 
not  give  a  pleasant  flavor  to  its  flesh. 

The  range  of  our  Alaskan  walrus  now  appears  to  be  restricted 
in  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  an  extreme  westward  at  Cape  Chelagskoi,  on 
the  Siberian  coast,  and  an  extreme  eastward  between  Point  Barrow 
and  the  region  of  Point  Beechey,  on  the  Alaskan  shore.  It  is,  how- 
ever, substantially  confined  between  Koliutchin  Bay,  Siberia,  and 
Point  Barrow,  Alaska.  As  far  as  its  distribution  in  polar  waters  is 
concerned,  and  how  far  to  the  north  it  travels  from  these  coasts  of 
two  continents,  I  am  unable  to  present  any  well-authenticated  data 
illustrative  of  the  subject ;  the  shores  of  Wrangel  Island  were  found 
in  possession  of  walrus-herds  during  the  season  of  1881. 

This  walrus  has,  however,  a  very  wide  range  of  distribution  in 
Alaska,  though  not  near  so  great  as  in  prehistoric  times.  They 
abound  to  the  eastward  and  southeastward  of  St.  Paul,  over  in 
Bristol  Bay,  where  great  numbers  congregate  on  the  sand-bars  and 
flats,  now  flooded,  now  bared  by  the  rising  and  ebbing  of  the  tide  ; 
they  are  hunted  here  to  a  considerable  extent  for  their  ivory.  No 
morse  are  found  south  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  ;  still,  not  more  than 
forty-five  or  fifty  years  ago,  small  gatherings  of  these  animals  were 
killed  here  and  there  on  some  islands  between  Kadiak  and  Oonimak 
Pass  ;  the  greatest  aggregate  of  them,  south  of  Bering  Straits,  will 
always  be  found  in  the  estuaries  of  Bristol  Bay  and  on  the  north 
side  of  the  peninsula  of  Alaska. 

I  have  been  frequently  questioned  whether,  in  my  opinion,  more 
than  a  short  space  of  time  would  elapse  ere  the  walrus  was  extermi- 
nated, or  not,  since  our  whalers  had  begun  to  hunt  them  in  Bering 
Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean.  To  this  I  frankly  make  answer  that  I 
do  not  know  enough  of  the  subject  to  give  a  correct  judgment.  The 
walrus  spend  most  of  their  time  in  waters  that  are  within  reach  of 
these  skilful  and  hardy  navigators  ;  and  if  they  (the  walrus)  are  of 


MORSE  AND   MAHLEMOOT. 


459 


sufficient  value  to  a  whaler,  he  can  and  undoubtedly  will  make  a 
business  of  killing  them,  and  work  the  same  sad  result  that  he  has 
brought  about  with  the  mighty  schools  of  cetacea  which  once 
whistled  and  bared  their  backs,  throughout  the  now  deserted  waters 
of  Bering  Sea,  in  perfect  peace  and  seclusion  prior  to  1842.  The 
returns  of  the  old  Russian  America  Company  show  that  an  annual 
average  of  ten  thousand  walrus  have  been  slain  by  the  Eskimo  since 
1799  to  1867.  There  are  a  great  many  left  yet ;  but,  unless  the  oil 
of  Eosmarus  becomes  very  precious  commercially,  I  think  the  shoal 
waters  of  Bristol  Bay  and  Kuskokvim  mouth,  together  with  the  ec- 


X  Cf  O 

~i.r"s-.  \T  V 


The  Death-stroke. 
[J/oAtemoote  Morse-hunting  in  t?te  summer.} 

centric  tides  thereof,  will  preserve  the  species  indefinitely.  Forty 
years  ago,  when  the  North  Pacific  was  a  rendezvous  of  the  greatest 
whaling-fleet  that  ever  floated,  those  vessels  could  not,  nor  can  they 
now,  approach  nearer  than  sixty  or  even  eighty  miles  of  many 
muddy  shoals,  sands,  and  bars  upon  which  the  walrus  rest  in  Bris- 
tol Bay,  scattered  in  herds  of  a  dozen  or  so  to  bodies  of  thousands, 
living  in  lethargic  peace  and  almost  unmolested,  except  in  several 
small  districts  which  are  carefully  hunted  over  by  the  natives  of 
Oogashik  for  oil  and  ivory.  I  have  been  credibly  informed  that 
they  also  breed  in  Bristol  Bay,  and  along  its  coast  as  far  north  as 
Cape  Avinova,  during  seasons  of  exceptional  rigor  in  the  Arctic. 


460  OUR   ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

The  Innuits  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  all  of  their  race  living  above 
them,  hunt  the  walrus  without  any  excitement  other  than  that  of 
securing  such  quarry.  They  never  speak  of  real  danger.  When 
they  do  not  shoot  them  as  these  beasts  drift  in  sleepy  herds  on  ice- 
floes, then  they  surprise  them  on  the  beaches  or  reefs  and  destroy 
a  herd  by  spearing  and  lancing.  When  harpooned  or  speared,  a 
head  of  the  weapon  is  so  made  as  to  detach  itself  from  its  shank, 
and  by  thus  sticking  in  the  carcass  a  line  of  walrus-hide  is  made  fast 
to  the  plethoric  body  of  Rosmarus.  When  this  brute  has  expended 
its  surplus  vitality  by  towing  the  natives  a  few  miles  in  a  mad,  fren- 
zied burst  of  swimming,  their  bidarrah  is  quietly  drawn  up  to  its 
puffing  form  close  enough  to  permit  of  a  coup  by  an  ivory-headed 
lance  ;  it  is  then  towed  to  a  beach  at  high  water.  When  the  ebb  is 
well  out,  the  huge  carcass  is  skinned  by  its  dusky  butchers,  who 
cut  it  up  into  large  square  chunks  of  flesh  and  blubber,  which  are 
deposited  in  queer  little  "  Dutch-oven  "  caches  of  each  family  that 
are  made  especially  for  its  reception. 

Dressing  walrus-hides  is  the  only  serious  hard  labor  which 
the  Alaskan  Innuit  subjects  himself  to.  He  cannot  lay  it  entirely 
upon  the  women,  as  the  Sioux  do  when  they  spread  buffalo  bodies 
all  over  the  plains.  It  is  too  much  for  female  strength  alone,  and 
so  the  men  bear  a  hand  right  lustily  in  this  business.  It  takes  from 
four  to  six  stout  natives,  when  a  green  walrus-hide  is  removed,  to 
carry  it  to  a  sweating-hole,  where  it  is  speedily  unhaired.  Then, 
stretched  alternately  upon  air-frames  and  pinned  over  the  earth,  it 
is  gradually  scraped  down  to  a  requisite  thinness  for  use  in  cover- 
ing the  bidarrah  skeletons,  etc. 

There  are  probably  six  or  seven  thousand  human  beings  in 
Alaska  who  live  largely  by  virtue  of  the  existence  of  Bosmarus,  and 
every  year,  when  the  season  opens,  they  gather  together  by  settle- 
ments, as  they  are  contiguous,  and  discuss  the  walrus  chances  for 
a  coming  year  as  earnestly  and  as  wisely  as  our  farmers  who  con- 
fer over  their  prospects  for  corn  and  potatoes.  But  an  Eskimo 
hunter  is  a  sadly  improvident  mortal,  though  he  is  not  wasteful  of 
morse  life,  while  we  are  provident,  and  yet  wasteful  of  our  resources. 

If  the  North  Pole  is  ever  reached  by  our  people,  they  will  do  so 
only  when  they  can  eat  walrus-meat  and  get  plenty  of  it — at  least 
that  is  my  belief — and,  knowing  now  what  the  diet  is,  I  think  the 
journey  to  that  hyperborean  ultima  is  a  long  one,  though  there  is 
plenty  of  meat  and  many  men  who  want  to  try  it. 


MORSE   AND    MAHLEMOOT. 


461 


Unless  we  spend  a  winter  in  the  Arctic  Ocean  above  Bering 
Straits  we  will  not  be  able  to  see  a  polar  bear  ;  but  there  is  one  place, 
and  one  place  only,  in  Alaska  where  in  midsummer  we  can  land, 
and  there  behold  on  its  swelling,  green,  and  flowery  uplands  hun- 
dreds of  these  huge  ursine  brutes.  That  place  is  the  island  of  St. 
Matthew,  and  it  is  right  in  our  path  as  we  leave  St.  Lawrence  and 
head  for  Oonimak  Pass  and  home. 

St.  Matthew  Island  is  an  odd,  jagged,  straggling  reach  of  bluffs 
and  headlands,  connected  by  bars  and  lowland  spits.  The  former, 
seen  at  a  little  distance  out  at  sea,  resemble  half  a  dozen  distinct  isl- 


Mahlemoots  Landing  a  Walrus. 
[An  Innuit  "  double  purchase"     St.  Lawrence  Island.} 

ands.  The  extreme  length  is  twenty-two  miles,  and  it  is  exceedingly 
narrow  in  proportion.  Hall  Island  is  a  small  one  that  lies  west  from 
it,  separated  from  it  by  a  strait  (Sarichev)  less  than  three  miles  in 
•width,  while  the  only  other  outlying  land  is  a  sharp,  jagged  pinna- 
cle-rock, rearing  itself  over  a  thousand  feet  abruptly  from  the  sea, 
standing  five  miles  south  of  Sugar-loaf  Cone  on  the  main  island. 
From  a  cleft  and  blackened  fissure,  near  the  summit  of  this  ser- 
rated pinnacle-rock,  volcanic  fire  and  puffs  of  black  smoke  have  been 
recorded  as  issuing  when  first  discovered,  and  they  have  issued  ever 
since. 

Our  first  landing,  early  in  the  morning  of  August  5th,  was  at  the 
spot  under  Cub  Hill,  near  Cape  Upright,  the  easternmost  point  of 


462  OUR  ARCTIC   PROVINCE. 

the  island.  The  air  came  out  from  the  northwest  cold  and  chilly, 
and  snow  and  ice  were  on  the  hill-sides  and  in  the  gulh'es.  The 
sloping  sides  and  summits  of  these  hills  were  of  a  grayish,  russet 
tinge,  with  deep-green  swale  flats  running  down  into  the  lowlands, 
which  are  there  more  intensely  green  and  warmer  in  tone.  A 
pebble-bar  formed  by  the  sea  between  Cape  Upright  and  Waterfall 
Head  is  covered  with  a  deep  stratum  of  glacial  drift,  carried  down 
from  the  flanks  of  Polar  and  Cub  Hills,  and  extending  over  two 
miles  of  this  water-front  to  the  westward,  where  it  is  met  by  a  simi- 
lar washing  from  that  quarter.  Back,  and  in  the  centre  of  this 
neck,  are  several  small  lakes  and  lagoons  without  fish  ;  but  empty- 
ing into  them  are  a  number  of  clear,  lively  brooks,  in  which  were 
salmon-parr  of  fine  quality.  The  little  lakes  undoubtedly  receive 
them  ;  hence  they  were  land-locked  salmon.  A  luxuriant  growth 
of  thick  moss  and  grass,  interspersed,  existed  almost  everywhere  on 
the  lowest  ground  ;  and  occasionally  strange  dome-like  piles  of  peat 
were  lifted  four  or  five  feet  above  marshy  swales,  and  appeared  so 
remarkably  like  abandoned  barraboras  that  we  repeatedly  turned 
from  our  course  to  satisfy  ourselves  personally  to  the  contrary. 

As  these  lowlands  ascend  to  the  tops  of  higher  hills,  all  vegeta- 
tion changes  rapidly  to  a  simple  coat  of  cryptogamic  gray  and  light 
russet,  with  a  slippery  slide  for  the  foot  wherever  a  steep  flight  or 
climbing  was  made.  Water  oozes  and  trickles  everywhere  under 
foot,  since  an  exhalation  of  frost  is  in  progress  all  the  time.  Some- 
times these  swales  rise  and  cross  hill-summits  to  the  valleys  again 
without  any  interruption  in  their  wet,  swampy  character.  The  ac- 
tion of  ice  in  rounding  down  and  grinding  hills,  chipping  bluffs, 
and  chiselling  everywhere,  carrying  the  soil  and  debris  into  de- 
pressions and  valleys,  is  most  beautifully  exhibited  on  St.  Mat- 
thew. The  hills  at  the  foot  of  Sugar-loaf  Cone  are  bare  and  liter- 
ally polished  by  ice-sheets  and  slides  of  melting  snow.  Rocks 
and  soil  from  these  summits  and  slopes  are  carried  down  and 
"dumped,"  as  it  were,  in  numberless  little  heaps  beneath,  so  that 
the  foot  of  every  hill  and  out  on  the  plain  around  strongly  put 
us  in  mind  of  those  refuse-piles  which  are  dropped  over  the  com- 
mons or  dumping-grounds  of  a  city.  Nowhere  can  the  work  of  ice 
be  seen  to  finer  advantage  than  here,  aided  and  abetted,  as  it  un- 
doubtedly is,  by  the  power  of  wind,  especially  with  regard  to  that 
chiselling  action  of  frost  on  the  faces  of  ringing  metallic  porphyry 
cliffs. 


MORSE   AND    MAHLEMOOT.  463 

The  flora  here  is  as  extensive  as  on  the  Seal  Islands,  two  hun- 
dred miles  to  the  southward ;  but  the  species  of  gramma  are  not 
near  so  varied.  Indeed,  there  is  very  little  grass  around  about. 
Wherever  there  is  soil  it  seems  to  be  converted  by  the  abundant 
moisture  into  a  swale  or  swamp,  over  which  we  travelled  as  on  a 
quaking  water-bed ;  but  on  the  rounded  hill-tops  and  ridge-sum- 
mits wind-driven  and  frost-splintered  shingle  makes  good  walking. 
Both  of  these  climatic  agencies  evidently  have  a  permanent  iron 
grip  on  this  island. 

The  west  end  of  St.  Matthew  differs  materially  from  the  east. 
A  fantastic  weathering  of  the  rocks  at  Cathedral  Point,  Hall  Isl- 
and, will  strike  the  eye  of  a  most  casual  observer  as  his  ship  enters 
the  straits  going  south.  This  eastern  wall  of  that  point  looms  up 
from  the  water  like  a  row  of  immense  cedar-tree  trunks.  The 
scaling  off  of  basaltic  porphyry  and  a  growth  of  yellowish-green 
and  red  mossy  lichens  made  the  effect  most  real,  while  a  vast  bank 
of  fog  lying  just  overhead  seemed  to  shut  out  from  our  vision  the 
foliage  and  branches  that  should  be  above.  This  north  cape  of 
Hall  Island  changes  when  approached,  with  every  mile's  distance, 
to  a  new  and  altogether  different  profile. 

Our  visit  at  the  west  end  of  the  island  of  St.  Matthew  was,  geo- 
logically speaking,  the  most  interesting  experience  I  have  ever 
had  in  Alaska.  A  geologist  who  may  desire  to  study  the  great- 
est variety  of  igneous  forms  in  situ,  within  a  short  and  easy  radius, 
can  do  no  better  than  make  his  survey  here.  These  rocks  are  not 
only  varied  by  mineral  colors,  together  with  a  fantastic  arrange- 
ment of  basalt  and  porphyry,  but  are  rich  and  elegant  in  their  tint- 
ing by  the  profuse  growth  of  lichens — brown,  yellow,  green,  and 
bronze. 

ATI  old  Russian  record  prepared  us,  in  landing,  to  find  bears 
here,  but  it  did  not  cause  us  to  be  equal  to  the  sight  we  saw,  for 
we  met  bears — yea,  hundreds  of  them.  I  was  going  to  say  that  I 
saw  bears  here  as  I  had  seen  seals  to  the  south,  but  that,  of  course, 
will  not  do,  unless  as  a  mere  figure  of  speech.  During  the  nine 
days  that  we  were  busy  in  surveying  this  island,  we  never  were 
one  moment,  while  on  land,  out  of  sight  of  a  bear  or  bears  ;  their 
white  forms  in  the  distance  always  answered  to  our  search,  though 
they  ran  from  our  immediate  presence  with  a  wild  celerity,  trav- 
elling in  a  swift,  shambling  gallop,  or  trotting  off  like  elephants. 
Whether  due  to  the  fact  that  they  were  gorged  with  food,  or  that 


464  OUR   ARCTIC    PROVINCE. 

the  warmer  weather  of  summer  subdued  their  temper,  we  never 
could  coax  one  of  these  animals  to  show  fight.  Its  first  impulse 
and  its  last  one,  while  within  our  influence,  was  flight — males,  fe- 
males, and  cubs — all,  when  surprised  by  us,  rushing  with  one  ac- 
cord right,  left,  and  in  every  direction,  over  the  hills  and  far  away. 

After  shooting  half  a  dozen,  we  destroyed  no  more,  for  we 
speedily  found  that  we  had  made  their  acquaintance  at  the  height 
of  their  shedding-season,  and  their  snowy  and  highly  prized  winter- 
dress  was  a  very  different  article  from  the  dingy,  saffron-colored, 
grayish  fur  that  was  flying  like  downy  feathers  in  the  wind,  when 
ever  rubbed  or  pulled  by  our  hands.  They  never  growled,  or  ut- 
tered any  sound  whatever,  even  when  shot  or  wounded. 

Here,  on  the  highest  points,  where  no  moss  ever  grows,  and 
nothing  but  a  fine  porphyritic  shingle  slides  and  rattles  beneath  our 
tread,  are  bear-roads  leading  from  nest  to  nest,  or  stony  lairs,  which 
they  have  scooped  out  of  frost- splintered  debris  on  the  hill-sides, 
and  where  old  she-bears  undoubtedly  bring  forth  their  young  :  but 
it  was  not  plain,  because  we  saw  them  only  sleeping,  at  this  season 
of  the  year,  on  the  lower  ground  ;  they  seemed  to  delight  in  stretch- 
ing themselves  upon,  and  rolling  over,  the  rankest  vegetation. 

They  sleep  soundly,  but  fitfully,  rolling  their  heavy  arms  and 
legs  about  as  they  doze.  For  naps  they  seem  to  prefer  little  grassy 
depressions  on  the  sunny  hill-sides  and  along  the  numerous  water- 
courses, and  their  paths  were  broad  and  well  beaten  all  over  the 
island.  We  could  not  have  observed  less  than  two  hundred  and 
fifty  or  three  hundred  of  these  animals  while  we  were  there  ;  at 
one  landing  on  Hall  Island  there  were  sixteen  in  full  sight  at  one 
sweep  of  our  eyes,  scampering  up  and  off  from  the  approach  of  the 
ship's  boat. 

Provided  with  more  walrus-meat  than  he  knows  what  to  do  with, 
the  polar  bear,  in  my  opinion,  has  never  cared  much  for  the  Seal 
Islands  ;  the  natives  have  seen  them,  however,  on  St.  Paul,  and  its 
old  men  have  their  bear  stories,  which  they  tell  to  a  rising  genera- 
tion. The  last  "inedvait"  killed  on  St.  Paul  Island  was  shot  at 
Bogaslov  in  1848  ;  none  have  ever  come  down  since,  and  very 
few  were  there  before,  but  those  few  evidently  originated  at  and 
made  St.  Matthew  Island  their  point  of  departure.  Hence  I  desire 
to  notice  this  hitherto  unexplored  spot,  standing,  as  it  does,  two 
hundred  miles  to  the  northward  of  St.  Paul,  and  which,  until 
Lieutenant  Maynard  and  myself,  in  1874,  surveyed  and  walked 


MORSE  AND   MAHLEMOOT.  465 

over  its  entire  coast-line,  had  not  been  trodden  by  white  men,  or  by 
natives,  since  that  dismal  record  made  by  a  party  of  five  Russians 
and  seven  Aleutes  who  passed  the  winter  of  1810-11  on  it,  and 
who  were  so  stricken  down  with  scurvy  as  to  cause  the  death  of  all 
the  Russians  save  one,  while  the  rest  barely  recovered  and  left 
early  the  following  year.  We  found  the  ruins  of  those  huts  which 
had  been  occupied  by  this  unfortunate  and  discomfited  party  of 
fur-hunters  ;  they  were  landed  there  to  secure  polar  bears  in  the 
depth  of  winter,  when  such  shaggy  coats  should  be  the  finest 

As  we  complete  our  review  of  St.  Matthew  and  its  ursine  occu- 
pation, the  circuit  of  Alaska  has  been  made — its  impression  we  have 
recorded,  and  the  path  from  here  home  again  is  a  bee-line  to  the 
Golden  Gate  over 

"Nothing,  nothing  but  the  sea- 
Vast  in  its  immensity  ?  " 


INDEX. 


ADAHK,  island  of,  183 
Aggatoo,  island  of,  179 
Agricultural  features  in    Sitkan  region, 
18,22,24,25,  35 

in  Kadiak  region,  103,  106,  107 

in  Cook's  Inlet  region,  83,  84,  85,  86 

in  Aleutian  region,  184,  185 

in  Seal  Islands,  204 

in  Yukon  Valley  and  the  North,  421, 443 
Agents    of  the   United  States  Govern- 
ment, 251,  252 
Akootan,  island  of,  151,  153 

volcano  of,  153 
Akoon,  island  of,  150, 154 

wolves  on,  156 
Alaska,  its  area  and  population,  13,  14 

its  discovery,  1,  2,  3,  5 

its  purchase  by  United  States  Govern- 
ment. 11,  12 

Alaska    Commercial  Company,  its  his- 
tory, 224,  245,  247,  248,  249 
Albinos  and    monstrosities,   few  among 

fur-seals,  306 

Alexander    Archipelago,     its    land    and 
scenery,  14,  15,  16,  17.  18,  19,  26,  271 

its  earliest  white  occupation,  28,  29,  30 

all  visitors  necessarily  go  there,  14,  15 
Alexandrovsk,  established  by  Kolmakov 

(1834),  375,  376 
Aleutes,   traits,   characteristics  of,    163, 

164,  165,  166,   167,   168,  169,  170,  171, 

172,  173,  174 

Algae,     or    sea-weeds,    those    of    Sitkan 
waters,  20 

those  of  Aleutian  waters,  182 

those  of  Pribylov  waters,  214,  215 
American  traders,   business  relations  of 
Baranov  with,  28 

business  methods  in  Sitkan  region,  36, 
37,  38,  39 

business  methods  in  Aleutian  region, 
129,  191 

business  methods  in  Yukon  and  Kus- 
kokvim  regions,  384,  414,  418,  424 

business  methods  in  Arctic  Ocean,  425 
Amehitka,  island  of,  181,  184 
Amlia,  island  of,  182 


Animals,  fur-bearing    and  food,  in  the 
Sitkan  region,  55,  61,  62 

in  the  Cook's  Inlet  region,  91 

in  the  Aleutian  region,  151,  156,   163, 
178 

in  the  Nooshagak  region,  381,  382,  399 

in  the  Kuskokvim  region,  381,  382,  399 

in  the  Yukon  and  Arctic  region,  418, 

425,426,  440 

Area  and  extent  of  Alaska,  13,  14 
Arrie  egg-shells,  their  toughness,  222 
Atkha,   island  and  natives  of,  144,  180, 

181,  182,  183 
Attitudes  and  land  postures  of  fur-seals, 

280 
Attoo,  extreme  western   land  of  North 

American  continent,  143,  179,  180 
Auroral  and  nephelogical  phenomena,  158, 

198,  420 
Autocratic  powers    of  the  old  Russian 

American  Company,  9 
Avatanak,  island  of,  154 


BACHELOR,  or  "  holluschickie  "  fur-seals, 

294,  295,  296,  297 
Baird,  Professor  S.  R,  190 
Banks,  codfishing,  122,  123,  124 
Baranov,  Alexander,  character  of,  6,  28 
Barrabkie,  a,  how  it  is  made,  135,  166, 

167 
Basking  sharks  and  killer-whales,   325, 

327 

Bath,  Innuit,  vile  methods,  387 
Barrow,  Point,  440 
Battles  of  the  fur-seals,  265  266 
Bays  indenting  coast  of  Kadiak,  115,  116 

of  Oonalashka,  159 
Bear  "Roads,"  89 
Beaver  Bay,  Oonalashka  Island.  176 
Bering's  expedition  of  Alaskan  discovery, 
1,  2,  3 

the  discovery  of  Alaska,  2,  3 

the  ill-fated  homeward  voyage,  3,  4, 124 

the  shipwreck  and  escape  of  survivors, 

4,  191 
Bering  Straits,  428,  429,  430,  431,  441 


468 


INDEX. 


Belcovsky,  village  of,  119,  120 
Bidarrah,   use  of,   how  it  is  made,  346, 

347,  453,  454 

Bidarka,  use  of,  how  it  is  made,  133 
Birth  of  fur-seals,  282 
Bishop  Innocent  Veniaminov,  his  labors, 

309 
Blubber  of  fur-seal,   sea-lion,  mahklok, 

and  beluga,  292,  345,  405 
Bogaslov  Islet,  volcanic  eruption  of,  re- 
cently, 186,  167 
Borka,  village  of,  176,  177 
Bristol  Bay,  118,  398 

Breeding  grounds,  number  of  fur-seals 
on,  310,  311,  313,  313,  314,  315,  316, 
317,  319,  320,  331 

of  sea-lions,  187,  310,  354,  356,  357,  358, 
361 

of  hair-seals,  256 

of  sea-otters,  132 

of  water-fowl,  210,  21 1 
Burials  and   funerals  of  the  Sitkans  or 
Thlinkets,  50 

of  the  Innuits  or  Eskimo,  389,  410 

of  the  Aleutes,  178 
Burnt  or  Brule  districts,  408,  409 


CAMPS,  Innuit  summer,  381,  426 
Kenaitze  hunting,  91 

Canoes,  Sitkan,  62,  63 
Ingaleek,  417 

Carousals,  Aleutian  beer  orgies,  137,  174, 
175 

Carving  bone  and  ivory,  skill  of  Innuits, 

384 
wood,  skill  of  Haidahs,  49 

Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  428,  429,  431 

Capture  of  sea-otters,  128,  191,  133 
of  sea-lions,  364,  365 

Carcasses  of  slaughtered  fur-seals,  350, 
351,  352,  353 

Cassiar  Gold-diggings,  17, 18,  25 

Cattle  in  Alaska,  86,  106,  107,  178,  184 

Cereals,  total  failure  in  Alaska,  107 

Chernabopr  islets,  138,  141 

Christianity  among  the  Aleutes  and  Kadi- 

akers,  115,  116,  171,  172,  241,  246 
among  the  Innuits,  410 
among  the  Thlinkets,  40,  41,  42 

Church,  Greek,  40,  41,  120,  121,  137,  164, 
174,  178,  241,  388 

Clans,  the  several  Sitkan  tribes,  43 

Climate  of  the  Sitkan  region,  24 
of  the  Mount  St.  Elias  region,  72,  77 
of  the  Cook's  Inlet  region,  93 
of  the  Kadiak  region  (see  Cook's  Inlet) 
of  the  Aleutian  Islands,  158,  185 
of  the  Pribylov  Islands,  194,  195,  196, 

of  the  Nooshagak  region,  382,  404 

of  the  Kuskokvim  region,  382,  404,  407 

of  Michaelovsky  and  the  Yukon,  421, 

422,  424 
of  Arctic  coast  of  Alaska,  427 


Coal  in  Cook's  Inlet,  125 

in  the  Arctic,  125.  438 

in  Shoomagin  Group,  125 

in  Sitkan  region,  70,  71 
Coins,  Russian  names  and  values  of,  8 
Codfish,  industry  of,  at  Oonga,  122,  123, 

124 

Companies,  rival  trading,  191 
Consumption,  chief  cause  of  death-rate 

among  natives,  110 

Cook's  Inlet,   characteristics  of,  82,  83, 
84,  85,  86,  87 

country  north  of,  87 
Copper  River,  its  character,  76,  77 
Cossacks,  Russian  and  Siberian,  128,  159 
Courage  of  fur-seals,  279 
Creoles,  what  they  are,  108 
Crillon,  Mount,  72 
Cruelties    inflicted    by   Russian   traders 

upon  natives,  6,  128, 147, 159 
Curing  and  dressing  fur-seal  skins,  345, 

346,  347,  348,  349 


D 


DANGERS  of  Alaskan  coast  navigation,  70, 
83,  117,  123,  218,  219,  374,  375,  395, 
440,  442 

to  which  young  fur-seals  are  exposed, 
283,  329,  330 

Death,  natural,  of  fur-seals,  307 

Decay  of  the   Russian  American    Com- 
pany after  Baranov's  removal,  11 

Deer,  Sitkan,  55,  62 
Rein,  121,  122,  397,  418 

Definition    of    technical  terms   on   Seal 
Islands,  320,  321 

Delta  of  the  Copper  River,  75,  77 
of  the  Yukon  River,  414,  415 

Deschnev,   Simeon,  his  remarkable  voy- 
age (1648),  429 

Diet  of  natives  of  the  Sitkan  region,  58 
of  the  Cook's  Inlet  region,  95 
of  the  Kadiak  region,  136,  137 
of  the  Aleutian  region,  168 
of  the  Seal  Islands,  241,  242,  243 
of  the  Innuits,  382,  383,  454,  455,  456 

Diomedes,    islands    of,    Bering    Straits, 
430,  431,  432,  441 

Diseases,  natives  most  afflicted  with,  110, 
111,  112,  113,  114,  238 

Docility  of  fur-seals  when  driven,   and 
being  killed,  335 

Dogs,  Eskimo,  388 
Sitkan,  61 
none  on  the  Aleutian  Chain,  158 

Dressing  fur-seal  skins,  348,  349 

Driving  fur-seals,  333,  334,  336 
sea-lions,  366,  867,  368 

Dwellings  of  the  Aleutes,  133,  166,  167 
of  the  Innuits,  378,  379,  380,  381,  426 
of  the  Cook's  Inlet  Kenaitze,  91,  92,  93 
of  the  Sitkans  or  Thlinkets,  46,  47,  48, 

49,  51,  60,  64 

of  the  Seal  Islanders,  232,  233 
of  the  white  fur-traders,  36,  175 


INDEX. 


469 


EARTHQUAKES,  146,  147,  148,  161,  186, 
189 

,  water-fowl,  gastronomic  value  of, 


Epidemic  among  seals,  324 

Employe's,  superannuated   "  old  colonial 

settlers,"  85,  86 

Eskimo  of  Alaska  (see  Innuits) 
Experiments  with  fur-seals,  263,  264 
Extermination  of  fur-seals,  231,  307,  308, 
309,  324 

of  sea-otters,  129 

of  walrus,  458,  459 
Extent  and  area  of  Alaska,  13,  14 
Eyes  of  fur-seals,  beauty  of,  291 

of  fur-seals,  lurid  lights  in,  341 

of  sea-lion,  ferocity  of,  355 

of  walrus,  grotesqueness  of,  449 


FAIKWEATHER,  Mount,  71,  72 
Familiar  flowering   plants  on   the   Seal 
Islands,  200,  201,  202,  203 

on  the  Arctic  coast  of  Alaska,  440 
Fasting,    long-protracted,   of  male    fur- 
seals,  272,  273 
Festivals,    native  Innuit,  390,  391,    392, 

393,423 

First  school  in  Alaska,  102 
First  mission  in  Alaska,  102 
Fishing  industries  of  the  Sitkans,  59 

of  the  Aleutes,  168 

of  the  Shoomagin  Islands,  122,  123,  124 

of  the  Kuskokvim  and  Yukon,  404 

of  the  Arctic,  434,  435 

of  Americans  at  Cook's  Inlet,  93 

of  Americans  at  Kadiak  Island,   115, 

116 
Flowers,  wild,  great  abundance  of,  177, 

420 
Forest  trees  of  Alaska,  21,  22,  79,  85, 103, 

104,  105,  157,  408,  409,  416,  424 
Forests  of  Alaska,  21,  71,  408,  409 
Foxes,  blue  (  Vulpes  lagopus),  180,   205, 
2G6 

red,  180,  206 
Four  Peaks,  or  "Cheetiery  Sopochnie," 

186 

Fruits  indigenous  to  Sitkan  district,  22, 
23 

indigenous  to  Aleutian  district,  168 

indigenous  to  Kuskokvim  district,  411 

indigenous  to  Seal  Islands,  201 
Fur-seal,  arrival  of  at  breeding  grounds, 
292,  293-297 

boldness  of,  129,331 

description  of  adult  male,  258,  259,  260, 
261 

description  of  adult  female,  273,  274, 
275,276 

description  of  "  pups,"  282,   283,   284, 
285,  286,  287,  2b8,  289 

odor  and  noise  of,  265,  270,  281 


Fur-seal,  erroneous  ideas  of  its  skin,  347. 

348 

effect  of  warm  weather  on,  306 
first  arrival  at  the  islands,  262 
food  of,  328,  329 
healthiness  of,  324 
high  order  of  instinct  of,  258,  301 
numbers  of,  310-313,  324.  326 
increase  or  diminution  ot,  317,  318,  328, 

333 
in  the  waters  around  the  islands,  286. 

299,  300,  302,  331,  361 
manner  of  killing  and   skinning,  337, 

338,  339,  340,  341,  342 
manner  of  salting,  dressing,  and  ship- 
ping skins  of,  345-349 
meat  of,  344 

method  of  land  travel,  260 
natural  enemies  of,  325,  327,  330 
noise  on  the   breeding  rookeries,  270, 

271 
movements  on  land  and  in  water,  286, 

289,  298,  362 
pelagic  range  of,  in  search  of  food,  329, 

330 

44  podding  "  of  its  "  pups,"  289 
polygamous  and  angry  males,  275,  276, 

277,  278 
position    and    selection    of    hauling- 

grounds,  295,  296 
power  of  land  locomotion,  267 
pre-emption  of  rookeries,  265,  276 
prostration  of,  by  heat  or  driving,  271, 

272 

range  of  vision  of,  291 
relative  growth  and  weight  of,  304,  305 
sanguinary  combats  of,  265,  266 
shedding  of  hair  and  fur,  285,  290,  302, 

sleep  of,  280,  281 

sleep  on  land  of,  280,  281 

skill  in  selecting  rookeries,  277 

strength  and  courage  of  the  male,  265, 

267 

tabulated  result  of  surveys,  312 
vitality  of,  283,  323 
voice  of,  268,  269,  270 


GAMES,  festivals,  etc.,   of  the  Aleutes, 
239,  240,  241 

of  the  Innuits,  393,  423 

of  the  Thlinkets  or  Sitkans,  65 
Glaciers  of  the  Aleutian  Islands,  183 

of  Cook's  Inlet,  84 

of  Prince  William  Sound,  78 

of  the  Sitkan  Archipelago   and  Cross 
Sound,  19,  20 

of  Mount  St.  Elias  region,  75 

of  Copper  River  region,  76 

easy  approach  to  Grand,  Icy  Bay,  19, 

20 
Gold-bearing  quartz,  Sitkan  Archipelago. 

69,70 

Cook's  Inlet,  96,  97 


470 


INDEX. 


Golorin  Bay,  Norton's  Sound,  mines  in, 

424 

Goreloi,  island  of,  183,  184 
Government,  civil  laws,  etc.,  for  Alaska, 

42 
Greek  Church,  in  Alaska,  40,  41, 120,  121, 

137,  164,  174,  178,  388 
Guano,  accumulation  prevented,  221 


HAIDAH  Indians,  best  savages  of  the  Sit- 

kan  region,  44 
house,  or  "  rancherie,"  46,  47,  48,  49,  51 

Hair-seal,  description  of,   255,  256,  257, 

332 

picture  of  Phoca-fwtida,  441 
picture  of  E.  barbatus,  383 

Halibut,  Sitkan  natives  fishing  for,  55, 63 
Aleutes  fishing  for,  212,  213 

Hauling  grounds,  selection  of,  by  fur- 
seals,  294,  295,  296 

Hogs,  108,  20S 

Hot  springs,  near  Sitka,  68 

Peninsula  and  Aleutian   Islands,  122, 
183,184 

Homeward  voyage  and  shipwreck  of  Ber- 
ing, 3,  4 

Human  protection  of  fur-seals,  373 

Hunting  sea-otter,  127,  128,  129,  133, 
134,  135,  136,  137,  138,  139,  140,  141, 
142,  143,  144 

Hutchinson,  H.M.,  his  labors,  247,  248 


ICE  Company,  San  Francisco,  105 
Icy  Bay,  grand  glacier  in,  19,  20 
Ilyamna,  volcano  of,  87 

lake,  396 
Implements,     agricultural,    manufacture 

of,  at  Sitka,  33 
Indians  of  the  Sitkan  region,  43,  44,  45, 

46,  47,  48,  51,  52,  53,  54,  59,  60,  64,  65 
Ingaleek,  or  Interior  Indians  of  Alaska, 

408,  417,  418 
Innuits,  or    Eskimo,  characteristics    of, 

376,  377,  378,  379,  380,  3bl,  382,  383, 

384,  385,  386,  387,  388,   389,  390,   391, 

392,   393,  394,  411,  426,  431,  432,  437, 

456,  457,  458 
Intoxication  among  Alaskan  natives,  66, 

137,  174,  175,  235 


JAPANESE  and  Aleutian  facial  resem- 
blance, 163 

Jumping  out  of  water  by  fur-seals,  300, 
301 

Juneau,  gold  mining  at,  69 

Juvenal,  tragic  death  of  Father,  396,  397 

K 

KADIAK,  the  island  of,  98,  99, 103 
sheep  raising,  107 


Kadiak,  old  colonial  citizens  of,  104 
sea-otter  hunting  by  natives  of,  116 
old  ship-building  industry.  105,  106 
Ice  Company  of  San  Francisco,  105 
timber  line  drawn  upon,  103 
wars  of  early  Russian  traders,  102, 103 
visit,  and  establishment  of  Shellikov. 

99, 100, 101, 102 
Kanaga,  island  of,  181, 183 
Kaniags,  natives  of  Kadiak,  109,  110 
Kamlayka,  the  water-proof,  371 
Kashga,  the  Innuit,  385,  386,  387 
Kenai  Peninsula,  84,  85,  86 
Kenaitze  Indians,  habits  and  appearance 

of,  87,  88,  89,  90,  91,  92,  93 
queer  architecture  of,  92 
Killer  whales,   their  ferocity,  325,  327, 

330 
Killing  grounds,  Seal  Islands,  337,  338, 

339,  34J,  341 
Killing  sea-lions,  method  of  natives,  368, 

369 

Kings  Island,  or  Ookivok,  425,  426 
Kotzebue  Sound,  characteristics  of,  432, 

433,  434 

Kolmakovsky,  trading-post  of,  406 
Krenitzin  Group  of  Islands,  148 
Kuskokvim    region,    characteristics    of, 

402,  403,  404,  405 
density  of  population  of,  403,  404 
commercial  poverty  of  it,  407,  408 
prevalence  of  mosquitoes  in  it,  405,  406 


LAND  and  scenery  of  the  Sitkan  region, 

14,  1 5,  .16,  17,  18,  19,  26,  27 
of  the  Mount  St.  Elias  region,  71,  72, 

73,  74,  75 

of  the  Cook's  Inlet,  82,  S3,  84,  85,  86 
of  the  Kadiak  district,  98,  99,  100,  103, 

104,  105,  106,  117 
of  the  Aleutian  district,  148,  149,  150, 

152,  153,  154, 155,  156,  157,  162,  163 
of  the  Pribylov  Islands,  215,  226,  227 
of  the  Nooshagak  region,  374,  375,  376, 

of  the  Kuskokvim  region,  395,  403,  404, 

405,  406,  407 
of  the  Yukon  region,  395 
of  the  Bering  Sea  Islands,  425,  426,  427, 

430,  442,  443,  461,  462 
of  the  Alaskan  Arctic  region,  424,  425, 

434,  436,  437,  438,  439,  440 
Law,  natural,  obeyed  among  the  fur-seals, 

310 

protecting  the  seal  islands,  250 
Lead,  ore  of,  miner's  prospecting  for,  424 
Lease  of  the  Seal  Islands,  250 


M 

MACKEREL,  Atkhan,    or   "yellow-fish," 

181,182 
Mahklok,  big  hair-seal  (Eriqnathus),  382, 

383 
Makooshin,  volcano  of,  160,  161 


INDEX. 


471 


Mammoth  and  mastodon,  fossil  remains 

of,  424,  434 

Massacre  of  Baranov's   Sitkan   garrison 
(1801 

of  Drooshinnin's  party,  159 

of  Seribniekov's  party,  76 

by  Glottov,  of  Oonalaskhan  natives,  160 

by  Glottov,  of  Four  Mountain  natives, 

186 
Measles  and  typhoid-pneumonia  in,  64, 

112,  113 

Medicines  and  pathology  of  Alaskan  sav- 
ages, 112 

Michaelovsky,  trading-post  of,  413,  419 
Mirage,  the  Arctic,  421 
Missionaries,  Russian,  labors  of,  99,  106, 

121,  388 

Moose,  hunting  of,  407 
Morgan,  Captain  E.,  labors  of,  247,  248 
Morserovia,  village  of,  121 
Morse  (see  Walrus) 
Mosses,  Alaskan,  22,  38, 149, 155, 163,  200, 

318,  398,  403,  420,  442,  462 
Mosquitoes,  curse  of  Alaska,  405,  406 

none  on  Seal  Islands,  204 
Mummies,  Aleutian,  186 
Mushrooms,  on  the  Seal  Island,  203,  204 
Musk-ox  not  found  in  Alaska,  418 
Mutilation  of  female  fur-seals,  276 


NEPHELOGICAL,  and  auroral  phenomena, 

158,  198,  420 

Niebaum,  Captain  G.,  labors  of,  247 
Nikolsky,  village  of,  184 
Nooshagak  region  and  village  of,  374,  375, 

376,  398 

Nomenclature  of  fur-seal  rookeries,  320 
Norton  Sound,  424 


OCCUPATION  of    Alaska    by  Americans 
(1867),  12 

of  Alaska  by  Russians  (1745-63),  128 

of  the  Seal  Islands  by  Russians  (1786), 
192,  193 

of  the  Seal  Islands  by  Americans  (1868), 

247,248 
Odor  from  the  killing  grounds,  350,  351 

from  the  fur-seal  blubber,  292,  372 
Oil,  fur-seal  and  sea-lion,  372 

oolachan  grease,  57 

herring,  57 

beluga  and  mahklok,  405 

coal,  use  of  by  Aleutes,  167 
"  Old  colonial  settlers,"  85,  86 
Ommaney,  Cape,  27 
Oomnak,  island  of,  184,  185 
Oonalashka,  village  and  island  of,  139, 

156,  157,  158 

Oonimak,  island  of,  145,  146,  147 
Oonga,  village  and  fisheries,  122,  123,  124 
Ookamok,    island  and  penal  settlement 

on,  116,  117 


Ookivok,  island  and  village  of,  425,  426 
Oogashik,  village  of,  119 
Oonalga,  island  of,  155 
Oogalgan,  island  of,  155 
Oogamok,  island  of,  148 
Otter  Island,  or  "  Bobrovia,"  219 
Otter,  sea,  hunting,  120,  179 
a  description  of  it,  130,  131,  132 


PARKA,  the  Innuit  garment,   377,    378, 

410,  411 

Pelagic  fur  sealing,  452,  453 
Peninsula  of  Alaska,  82, 117,  118 
Penal  settlement,  R.  A.  Co.  on  Ookamok, 

116,  117 
Pneumonia,  typhoid,  scourge  of,  recently, 

112,  113 

Pogromnia  Sopka,  volcano  of,  146 
Polar  bears,  on  the  Seal  Islands,  194,  464 

on  St.  Matthew's  Island,  463,  464 
Poonook,  islets  and  village  of,  444 
Population  of  Alaska,  13,  14 
Poultry  kept  in  Alaska,  107,  185 
Port  Clarence,  description  of,  427,  428 
Potatoes,  how  cultivated,  and  where,  60, 

61,  106,  421 
Powers  and  privileges  of    old    Russian 

Company,  9, 10,  11 
Pribylov,  Gerassim,  the  discoverer  of  the 

Seal  Islands,  191,  19/2,  323 
Pribylov  Islands,  agriculture  on,  204 

algs  of  the,  214,  215 

animals  and  birds,  208,  209,  210,  211, 
213,  214,  223,  224 

churches  and  schools,  241,  246 

climate  and  winds,  194,  195,  196,  197 

colonization,  193,  230,  231 

creature-comforts  of  natives  now,  2S2, 
233 

description  of  natives  of,  235,  236,  237, 
238,  239 

dimensions  and  contour  of,  215,   226, 
227 

disappearance   of   seals   and  birds   in 
winter,  305,  306,  327 

discussion  of   seal  life,  255,  258,  202, 
293,  2<>4 

eligibility  of,  229,  230 

flowering  plants,  etc.,  of,  200,  201,  20:2, 
203 

fogs  and  mists  of,  194,  195,  306 

gastronomic  value  of  waterfowl  eggs, 
211 

general  business  methods   of   sealing, 
234,  237,  245,  246,  252 

geographical  position  of,  194 

geological  structure  of,  199,  215,  216, 
217,  224,  225,  227,  228 

grand  total  of  fur-seals  on,  312 

isolation  of  rookeries  on,  191,  193,  194 

insects  of,  204 

lack  of  harbors  in  the,  217,  218 

land  animals  of  the,  20\  206,  207 

peculiar  advantages    of,    to  fur-seals. 
194,  195,  230 


472 


INDEX. 


Pribylov  Islands,  peculiar  cats  on  the,  207 

polar  bears  on  the,  194,  464 

poultry  kept  on  the,  208 

remarks  on  walrus  of  the,  255,  332 

Russian  slaughter  on,  316 

scarcity  of  fish  around  the,  212 

status  of  early  colonists,  231,  232 

sheep,  on  the  rookeries,  270 

stock-raising  on  the,  207,  208 

vast  numbers  of  waterfowl  on  the.  220, 
221,  222 

Veniaminov's  account  of  the,  194,  200 

vigilance  of  the  natives,  253 

weight,   growth,  etc.,   of  fur-seals   on 

the,  278,  279,  304,  305 
Prince  Frederick  Sound,  its  awful  scenic 

grandeur,  23 
Prince  William  Sound,  its  gloomy  scenic 

character,  78 

Prince  of  Wales  Island,  15,  99 
Prostration  of  natives  in  sunshine,  197 

of  fur-seals,  when  driven,  336 
Protection  of  fur-seals,  326,  327,  332,  373 
Pups,  fur-seal,  description  of,  282,  283, 

284,  285,  286,  287 

learning  to  swim,  287,  288,  289 


QUARTZ  mines  near  Sitka,  69,  70 
on  Douglas  Island,  70 


REINDEER,  121, 122,  397,  418 

marked  difference  from  that  of  Siberia, 

397,  398 
Rocks  of  St.  Matthew's  Island,  beauty 

of,  463 
Rookeries,  Pribylov  Islands,  292,  293,  294, 

310,  311,  312 
Resurrection  Bay,  first  Alaskan  shipyard 

there,  79 
Russian- American  Company,  its  history, 

7,  8,  9,  10,  1,1,  103 
Russian  coins,  their  names  and  value,  8 

exploration  and  traders,  bad  record  of, 
4,5,6 

rival  companies  (1745-1786),  191 

seal   islands,  Bering  and  Copper,  327, 
373 

Governors  living  at  Sitka,  34 
Russians,  as  they  lived  at  Sitka,  32,  33 


SAANAK,  great  sea-otter   camp   of,  138, 
141,  142 

Saint  Elias,  Mount,  73 

George  Village,  Pribylov  Group,  352 
Lawrence  Island,  Bering  Sea,  442,  443    j 
Matthew's  Island,  Bering  Sea,  461,  462, 

463 
Michaels,  post  of,  413,  419 


Saint  Nicholas,  redoubt,  Kenai,  84 
Paul  Village,  Pribylov  Group,  352 

Salmon  in  the  Sitkan  region,  56 
in  Cook's  Inlet,  Sitkan  region,  87,  94. 

95,  96 

in  the  Kadiak  district,  115,  116 
in  the  Aleutian  district,  168,  185 
in  the  Nooshagak   district,   398,   399, 

400 

in  the  Kuskokvim  district,  404 
in  the  Yukon  district,  417,  418 
in  the  Alaskan  Arctic,  434,  435 

Salt  House,  work  in,  at  Saint  Paul,  345, 
346 

Semeisopochnoi,  islands  of,  181 

Schools,  120,  173 

Scrofula,  virulence  of,  among    Alaskan 
natives,  111 

Sea-cow,  Rhytina  stelleri,  4 

Seal  (see  Pur-seal,  Hair-seal) 

Seal  Islands  (see  Pribylov  Islands) 

Seal  and  walrus  hunting,  Innuit,  400,  426, 
440,  441,  460,  461 

Sea-otter,  a  description  of  it,  130,  131, 

132 

early  Russian  hunt  for,  128,  191 
native  hunters  of,  133,  134,  135,  136, 
137,  138,  139,  179, 181 

Sea-lions,  arrival  at  breeding    grounds, 

357 
Eumetopias  stelleri,  adult  males,  354, 

355,  356,  357 

Eumetopias  stelleri,  adult  females,  357 
description  of  a  fight  between  rivals, 

355,  356 

general  uses  of,  to  natives,  363,  369 
natives  driving  the,  364,  365,  366,  367 
manner  of  capture  of,  364 ,  365 
manner  of  penning  or  coralling,  365 
manner  of  killing  them  on  St.  Paul,  368, 

369 

meat,  good  quality  of,  372 
sites  of  their  abandoned  rookeries,  321, 

322 

St.  George,  the  last  resort  for,  362,  363 
shedding  hair,  360 
shyness  and  relative  cowardice,  332,  356 

Shamans,  their  services,  50,  112 

Sheep,  trial,  and  failure  to  raise  in  Alaska, 
107 

Shellikov,   Grigoria,  his  labors,  99,  100, 
101 ,  102 

Shipbuilding  in  Alaska,  79,  80,  105,  106 

Shipyard  at  Sitka,  32 

Shishaldin,  beautiful  volcano  of,  146 

Shoomagin  Islands,  122,  123, 124,  125,  126 

Siberian  coast,  Bering  Straits'  shore,  429 

Sitka,  its  history,  27,  29,  30,  31,  32 
as  it  is  to-day,  33,  34,  35 

Small-pox,  epidemic  of,  64,  113,  421 

Soil  and  climate,  not  favorable  to  agricul- 
ture (see  Agriculture) 

Special  Agents  of  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment, 251,  252 

Sports  and  pastimes  of  the  natives,  65, 

175 
of  the  young  fur-seals,  298,  299,  300 


INDEX. 


473 


Steamers,  trading,  on  the  Yukon,  414 
Steller,  George  W.,  his  labors,  189 
Stench   arising  from   fur-seal  carcasses, 
350,  351 

from  decaying  salmon  and  its  roe,  57, 

399 

Superstitions  of  the  natives,  80,  81,  90 
Surveys  of  the  fur-seal  breeding  grounds, 

310/311,  312 
Swans,  capture  of,  399 
.Swimming   feats  of  fur-seals,  300,  301, 

302 


TAXAGA,  island  of,  181,  183 
Telegraph.  Collins  Overland,  427,  428 
Thlinkets,  or  Sitkan  Archipelago  Indians, 

4:;.  44,  45,52,  53,  54,  59,  60 
Tidal  phenomena  of  Cook's  Inlet,  83,  87 

of  Bristol  Bay,  374,  375 

of  Kuskokvim  River,  402 

uncertainties  in  Bering  Sea,  197, 198 
Tigalda,  island  of,  154, 155 
Timber  of  Alexander  Archipelago,  21,  22,  j 

of  Mount  St.  Elias  region,  72,  77 

of  Cook's  Inlet  region,  85 

of  Kadiak  District  region,  103, 104,  105 

of  Aleutian  District  region,  157 

of  Alaskan  Interior  region,  395,  408,  409,  ; 
410 

of  Alaskan  Arctic  region,  425,  439,  443  j 
Tinneh,  or  Ingaleeks  of  Alaska,  408 
Timidity  and  shyness  of  pinnipeds  at  sea,  • 

331 

Togiaks,  Quaker-like  Innuits,  401,  402 
Treasury  Department,  its  control  of  Seal  > 

Islands,  250,  251,  252 
Totem  and  totemic  posts,  49 
Transfer  of  Alaska,  cause  why  so  done, 

11,12 

Traffic  by  traders  in  the  Sitkan  region, 
36,  37,  38,  39 

in  the  Kadiak  region,  119, 120, 129 

in  the  Aleutian  region,  129, 191 

in  the  Yukon,  Nooshagak,  and  Kuskok- 
vim region,  384, 414, 418 

in  the  Bering  Sea  and  the  Arctic,  425 
Treadwell  Gold-mining  Stamp  Mill,  69,  71 
Tusks  of  the  Walrus,  450,  451 


UGIAK,  Eskimo  sea-god,  393,  423 
Uses  of  sea- lion  skins  in  making  boats, 
370,  371 

of  walrus  -skins  in  making  boats,  454 

of  walrus-teeth,  404 


VENIAMINOV,  the  distinguished  Russian 
priest,  37,  309 


Volcanic  region  of  Cook's  Inlet,  87 
region  of  Oonimak,  146, 147, 148 
region  of  Atkha,  183 
region  of  Oomnak,  161 

Volcanic  elevation  of  Bogaslov  Islet  re- 
cently, 186,  187 

Voyage  of  Captain  Cook  (1778),  83,  176, 


of  Veit  Bering  (1741 ),  1,  2,  3,  4,  73,  74 
of  Tscherikov  (1741),  1,  73,  74 
of  Shellikov  (1782-84),  99, 100, 102 
of  Simeon  Deschnev  (1648),  429 


WALKER,  Lake,  399,  400 
Walrus,  a  description  of,  444,  445,  446, 
447,  449 

in  Bristol  Bay,  399 

alarm  when  approached  in  boats,  332 

in  Arctic,  425,  444 
Walrus  Islet,  a  description  of,  220,  444, 

visit  to,  gathering  eggs,  210,  220,  221, 

Walrus  and  seal-hunting  and  hunters,  400, 

426,  440,  441.  460,  461 
Wars  of  the  Thlinkets,  44 

of  the  Innuits,  417 

of  the  Russian  traders,  6,  29,  30, 101 
Water-craft  of  the  Sitkans,  62,  63 

of  the  Aleutes,  33 

of  the  Ingaleeks,  417 

of  the  Innuits,  411,  427,  453,  454 
Weaving,  grass    baskets,    hats,   etc.,  by 

Aleutians,  181 

grass  and  bark,  by  Sitkans,  52 
Whaling,  Aleutian,  151,  152,  153 

Americans,  71,  72,  440,  441 

Innuit,  439 
Wolves,  none  on  the  Aleutian  Chain  now, 

156 

Wrangei,     Mount,     the    highest    North 
American  peak,  77 

town  of,  17, 18,25 


YUKON,  the  river,  its  characteristics,  412, 

413.  414,  415,  416,  419 
contiguous  country  to,  415,  416 
its  people,  417,  418,  419 


ZAGOSKIN,  Lieutenant,  his  labors  (1841- 

1845),  422 
Zarenbo,  island  of,  27 

Lieutenant,  25 

Zalophus    and  Eumetopias.   differences 
between,  362 


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